President Donald Trump exploded at a reporter Monday who asked whether he was reconsidering U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's role after she dropped a vandalism case against a former Olympian.
Pirro filed a motion Friday to dismiss a felony case against three-time Olympian David Hearn, according to ABC News, conceding the damage was "the result of flawed installation by the contractor."
Trump had spent weeks insisting vandals wrecked his $16 million Reflecting Pool renovation, according to ABC News.
"You're fake news. Don't ever talk again," Trump snapped at the reporter. "You're fake news. One of the worst in the business. Fortunately, nobody watches you."
Trump had already lit into Pirro before the reporter asked.
"Jeanine Pirro made a mistake," the president said.
"It was vandalism!" he added.
Trump claimed surveillance footage showed vandals cutting the new liner with a box knife.
"Now we have photographs or tapes, like moving cameras. Right? We have them where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife," he said.
Pirro's filing described a different sequence of events. A National Park Service engineer had flagged peeling around the pool's edge on June 11 — eight days before Hearn visited the site, ABC News reported. A government witness could not attribute any damage to Hearn.
"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.
"I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella, and people get away with things, and it's a disgrace," he added.
CNN reported Trump had fumed about Pirro all weekend and that sources called her firing "highly likely."
He was "blindsided" by her filing, a source said, and their Saturday phone call "wasn't pretty."
Federal judges had knocked down nearly a dozen of Pirro's gun cases as unconstitutional, CNN reported, and her office won only half of its first eight criminal trials in 2026.
"Nothing is off the table," Hearn's attorney Michael Bromwich said of his client's legal options, which include bar referrals, inspector general complaints, and lawsuits.
