President Donald Trump on Saturday sharply rebuked U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool stemmed from a botched installation rather than vandalism, as the president has maintained.

Pirro's office moved in a court filing on Friday to drop criminal charges against David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist who had been accused of deliberately damaging the pool following a renovation completed ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebration last month.

In a social media post, Trump conceded that there "may have been some contractor difficulty" with the installation of a new pool liner, but continued to insist that "the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"

"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool," Trump wrote.

The public break between the president and his own DOJ appointee is unusual. Pirro, a former Fox News host and Westchester County district attorney, was installed as the top federal prosecutor in Washington earlier this year and had initially championed the case.

The dismissal represents a notable setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed the president's claims and framed the prosecution as an effort to hold someone accountable for damage to a Washington landmark that Trump had personally championed. On Saturday, the president continued to allege that the majority of the pool damage was caused by vandals, without providing any new evidence.

In their 20-page court filing, government lawyers stated that additional documents obtained from the Interior Department since Hearn's indictment indicate the damage resulted from a flawed contractor installation as well as "the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026."

A subsequent visual inspection revealed damage spread throughout the pool, including in its center — an area where, prosecutors noted, a vandal would be unlikely to attempt peeling the lining. Hearn had been specifically accused of pulling up a two-foot-square section of the pool's lining.

"Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt," Pirro, a Trump appointee, stated in the filing, which asked a judge to formally dismiss the case.

Pirro also blamed the Interior Department in the filing for providing "less than fulsome information at the outset of the case." The document added that had "DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment."

The reversal was striking, given that Pirro had declared the government's case was built on "tremendous evidence" when she announced charges against Hearn last month.

Hearn's legal team issued a statement on Saturday criticizing both Trump and Pirro and indicated it was weighing "legal remedies" on their client's behalf.

"Trump is mad at Pirro because she finally admitted what we made clear in our legal filings all along: Trump's botched renovation was responsible for the damage — not Davey Hearn," the legal team said. "However, her claim that she and her office were previously duped by Interior is nonsense. Starting immediately after the arraignment, our motions repeatedly proved that the administration was to blame for the Reflecting Pool failures, not Davey."

Interior Department officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Also on Saturday, Trump posted a nearly four-minute video apparently captured by a security camera showing three individuals with their hands in the pool, one for an extended period. The president asserted the footage shows "material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!" However, given the apparent distance from which the video was recorded, it is unclear whether any act of vandalism is visible. Workers can be seen standing nearby without appearing to notice the individuals reaching into the water.

The Reflecting Pool renovation began after Trump announced beautification plans in May. Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof the pool's concrete floor. No-bid contracts, which bypass competitive bidding, are permissible under certain federal procurement rules but frequently draw scrutiny over questions of cost oversight and vendor selection. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Water was drained from the pool, and Trump directed that the bottom be painted in a color he described as "American flag blue." Problems surfaced within days of the project's completion, however, as sections of the new liner began peeling off.

Trump quickly blamed vandals, and the National Park Service reported a June 9 incident to the U.S. Park Police in which it claimed a sharp knife or razor had been used to cut the new liner.

The Reflecting Pool project is one of several initiatives Trump has pursued across the nation's capital. Most prominently, he demolished the White House's East Wing to construct a $400 million ballroom and has announced plans to build a towering arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.