There are days when the machinery of American government grinds forward on questions of war, hunger, and human rights.
And then there are days like this one, where the President of the United States, who might fire Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for D.C., spends the weekend fuming about a Reflecting Pool.
CNN reported Monday that Trump may fire Jeanine Pirro because her office told a federal court the truth: the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool came from a rushed, botched renovation, not from vandals.
Two people familiar with Trump’s thinking told CNN the president is “furious” and that they consider it “highly likely she’s removed from her job.”
A senior administration official said Trump was “blindsided” by the filing.
Side Note: Shouldn’t this in itself be enough for the 25th Amendment? The President believes something his DOJ and Interior Department have both proven untrue?
Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”
Let’s back up, because the timeline matters.
A Felony Charge Over a Peeling Pool Liner
In June 2026, Trump’s administration finished a $14 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool, rushed to completion ahead of America 250 events around Independence Day.
Almost immediately, the new blue lining began peeling and the water turned green.
Trump blamed vandals. And on July 2, Pirro held a press conference announcing a felony indictment against David “Davey” Hearn — a 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist accused of pulling up a section of the pool liner with his hands.
She called it “a deliberate act to damage the Reflecting Pool,” said he did it “forcefully and violently,” and framed the day as one of “accountability.”
When NBC News reporter Ryan Reilly asked her about pre-existing problems with the renovation, Pirro brushed him off.
Her office, she said, could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn caused more than $1,000 in damage, regardless of anything that came before.
Hearn pleaded not guilty and said the pool looked exactly the same after he stepped away from the water as it did when he got there.
Sit with that for a second. A 67-year-old man — an Olympian, a private citizen — was publicly named, indicted, and threatened with a felony conviction so that an administration would not have to admit its contractor did sloppy work on a deadline it set itself.
The Reversal
On July 31, Pirro and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence filed a 20-page motion to dismiss the indictment. As legal journalist Chris Geidner laid out at Law Dork, the filing is remarkable reading.
Prosecutors told the court that the damage was the result of “flawed installation by the contractor” and “the rush to complete the project” before the July 4th events.
A National Park Service engineer had flagged the cause as contractor error — overspray — back on June 1.
A July 17 visit to the drained pool showed damage everywhere, including in the middle of the pool, where, as the filing dryly notes, a vandal would not likely bother to peel anything.
Their conclusion: it is “difficult to attribute the widespread damage” to vandalism, “let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Which is the exact opposite of what Pirro said on July 2.
The filing also pointed a finger at the Interior Department, run by Secretary Doug Burgum, saying it “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case” and that had it been forthcoming, “the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.”
The Part That isn’t Funny
Trump is not angry at Burgum. He is angry at the prosecutor who stopped prosecuting an innocent man.
That’s the whole story, and it’s worth making it clear.
The message being sent to every U.S. Attorney in the country is that dropping a case the evidence cannot support is a fireable offense — that loyalty to the president’s version of events outranks your obligation to the court, to the grand jury, to the TRUTH, and to the person whose life you’re holding in your hands.
Burgum, for his part, dismissed the filing entirely, insisting the evidence of repeated vandalism is clear.
Trump told reporters the administration has photographs and tapes of people cutting the liner with a box knife
Editor yelling at Trump: “Show the photographs and tapes to the American people, then! Why didn’t you give that “evidence” to Pirro? It sure would have helped her “case,” don’tcha think? Instead you’re probably going to fire Jeanine Pirro over your own stupidity.” I can’t take it.
Meanwhile, internal National Park Service communications CNN obtained through FOIA requests, covering March through July, never mention vandalism at all — and an NPS email from July 1 said the pool would need draining because of algae.
What Happens Next
The judge has not yet dismissed the charge.
Hearn’s lawyers are expected to respond this week, and he has hired Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, who has represented clients in two special counsel investigations.
Pro-Democracy shoutout: Hearn was also represented by Norm Eisen, part of the leadership at the Democracy Defenders Fund.
Bromwich told CNN that “nothing is off the table” — including bar complaints against the prosecutors, inspector general referrals at both Justice and Interior, lawsuits, and a push to unseal the grand jury record.
Pirro’s office asked for dismissal without prejudice, which means the government could try to charge Hearn again.
Bromwich is expected to fight for a dismissal that closes the door for good.
So yes, it is silly. A president raging about pool paint while his prosecutor’s job hangs in the balance is genuinely absurd.
An innocent man spent three weeks under felony indictment for a crime that never happened, and an administration that had the evidence that showed the truth but would rather burn a prosecutor than say the words “we rushed the job.” (or “Oops.”)
