U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday afternoon, according to what sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The meeting appeared to take place amid questions about her future in the role.
The meeting reportedly came days after Pirro dropped charges against those accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. According to the outlet, Trump publicly criticized her decision, saying she had backed down under pressure.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting. When asked about Pirro’s job status, a White House official reportedly pointed to Trump’s earlier remarks in the Oval Office, where he criticized her decision to drop the case.
Trump raised the possibility of firing Pirro in private conversations
Trump has privately talked to aides about whether to fire Pirro, according to sources, though they cautioned that nothing is final until Trump makes a decision himself. During an Oval Office event on Monday, Trump said he was “very disappointed” that Pirro dropped a felony indictment against three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn last Friday.
Pirro had reportedly filed a 20-page document stating the damage was caused by “flawed installation by the contractor,” not vandalism, as she and the president had previously said. Trump had already voiced his frustration over the decision, and his reaction to Pirro dropping the case was shared publicly soon after the filing was made.
Trump continued to claim on Monday that vandals were responsible for cutting and tearing the pool’s lining. He said Pirro “made a mistake” and said she “choked” under pressure from the judge overseeing the case. He also said she “folded like an umbrella.”
“The judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine. And frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department and I guess she choked,” Trump said.
Hearn was arrested at the Reflecting Pool in late June. He was charged with a felony for allegedly causing more than $1,000 in damage, and reporting at the time detailed the potential prison sentence he faced under the original charges. Hearn said he had only touched a piece of the liner that was already peeled from the bottom of the pool, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
When she withdrew the case, Pirro said new information made it “difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism.” She pointed to an internal National Park Service communication from June 11 that raised concerns about the peeling pool liner more than a week before Hearn’s arrest. Pirro also reportedly dropped misdemeanor charges against three other people connected to damage at the pool.
Trump first criticized Pirro’s decision to drop the Hearn case in a social media post on Saturday. “I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” he wrote at the time. When asked on Monday whether he would consider removing Pirro from her position, Trump did not give a direct answer.
Trump has also said the contractors working on the pool project may share some blame for the damage, even as he continues to argue that vandalism occurred. “So now I’m not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism,” Trump said Monday.
Trump also claimed that Pirro assessed the damage right after the July 4th holiday, when fireworks debris was scattered around the pool. This claim does not match Pirro’s court filing from Friday, in which she said she visited the pool on July 1.
The Reflecting Pool was drained for repairs shortly after the July 4th holiday and remains empty and fenced off from the public. Trump said on Monday that the pool would be repaired and reopened within two weeks at the latest.
Published: Aug 4, 2026 07:36 am