Jeanine Pirro survived a tense White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday\u2014but her job may remain on thin ice after the president accused his longtime ally of \u201cchoking\u201d in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump had been seriously considering removing Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, two people familiar with his thinking told CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president reportedly spent the weekend fuming after Pirro\u2019s office filed a motion to dismiss a felony case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn and blamed the pool\u2019s damage on a flawed renovation instead of vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump felt \u201cblindsided\u201d because he was not warned about the filing beforehand, a senior administration official told CNN. The president confronted Pirro during a Saturday phone call that one official described as less than cordial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their conversation \u201cwasn\u2019t pretty,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The simmering dispute burst into public view Monday when Trump unloaded on Pirro during an Oval Office event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed in Jeanine Pirro,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cShe folded like an umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump said Pirro \u201cmade a mistake\u201d and appeared to buckle under pressure from the judge overseeing the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pirro later met with Trump at the White House alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. She was not fired and did not offer her resignation during the meeting, multiple sources told CNN. ABC News<\/a> separately reported that Trump had privately discussed with aides whether to dismiss her, although sources cautioned that no final decision had been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The blowup followed a stunning reversal by Pirro\u2019s office in the case against Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympian who was accused of ripping newly installed sealant from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Pirro announced Hearn\u2019s indictment in July, she called the alleged damage a \u201cdeliberate act of destruction\u201d and vowed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese monuments belong to all of us, and we will protect them\u2014and hold accountable those who seek to deface or diminish them,\u201d Pirro said in the original Justice Department announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But prosecutors later said evidence withheld by the Interior Department painted a dramatically different picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its motion to dismiss, Pirro\u2019s office accused the department of providing \u201cless than fulsome information\u201d and said documents obtained after the indictment strongly suggested that a rushed and defective installation caused the pool\u2019s lining to peel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHad DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n