President Donald Trump is refusing to guarantee Jeanine Pirro’s future — and the nation’s top law enforcement official just made her position even more precarious.
Asked Tuesday whether Pirro would remain U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Trump offered a blunt response: “I haven’t made a determination.”
The warning came after Pirro broke sharply with the president by dropping the government’s case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who had been accused of damaging the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
One day later, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was given an opportunity to defend Pirro. Instead, he opened the door to her firing.
“Hypothetically, if the president chose to fire a United States attorney, it turns out he’s allowed to do that because he’s the president,” Blanche said at a Wednesday Justice Department press conference, according to Mediaite.
Blanche added that Trump understands he can fire anyone in his administration and that any decision regarding Pirro is ultimately “his call.”
That was hardly a ringing vote of confidence.
Blanche did praise Pirro’s office for doing a “phenomenal job” combating crime in Washington, but he conspicuously declined to endorse her handling of the case that landed her in Trump’s crosshairs.
Pirro’s office initially secured a felony indictment against Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympian. Prosecutors accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up part of the pool’s newly installed liner during a June 19 visit. He faced as many as 10 years in prison.
But the prosecution collapsed after Pirro’s office received additional records from the Interior Department.
In a 20-page court filing, prosecutors said the new information showed that the widespread damage was caused by faulty work from contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings and a rush to complete the project before America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
The documents included National Park Service communications raising concerns about the peeling liner on June 11 — more than a week before Hearn was arrested. A later inspection found overspray and delamination across the pool, including in areas that would have been difficult for a vandal to reach.
“Had DOI been forthcoming,” Pirro’s office wrote, prosecutors would not have sought the indictment.
Pirro subsequently moved to dismiss Hearn’s case without prejudice and dropped misdemeanor charges against three other people accused of damaging the pool.
The reversal infuriated Trump, who has continued to insist that vandals — not contractors — were primarily responsible.
“I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro,” Trump told reporters Monday, accusing her of choking under pressure from the judge and folding “like an umbrella.”
Trump reportedly met privately with Pirro later that day. According to CBS News, Pirro arrived with a box of evidence and attempted to convince the president during a sometimes-heated Oval Office meeting that the pool’s damage resulted from shoddy construction.
She left the White House with her job — but apparently without a promise that she would keep it.
Trump has privately discussed removing Pirro and was reportedly blindsided by her office’s decision to abandon the case, according to ABC News.
The growing feud represents a stunning rupture between Trump and one of his most recognizable longtime defenders.
Before Trump selected her to become Washington’s top federal prosecutor, Pirro spent years using her Fox News platform to defend him. Now she finds herself publicly attacked by the president, undercut by Blanche and forced to defend a decision her office says was required by the evidence.
The embarrassment is compounded by the cost of the project itself.
The repainting contract grew to more than $14.65 million, while a separate algae-control system brought the total cost of the renovation effort above $16 million, according to ABC News. Both projects were accelerated ahead of the Fourth of July festivities.
Hearn’s attorneys are now seeking to have the indictment dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent prosecutors from reviving the case. They have also said they are considering civil litigation, reimbursement of legal fees and requests for government investigations.
Pirro survived her White House showdown Monday. But Trump’s public refusal to secure her job — followed by Blanche’s reminder that the president can fire her whenever he chooses — leaves the former Fox News star twisting in the wind.
