Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined Wednesday to say whether President Donald Trump should fire Jeanine Pirro after the president criticized the U.S. attorney for dropping charges against an Olympic canoeist accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“If the president chose to fire a United States attorney, it turns out he’s allowed to do that because he’s the president of the United States,” Blanche said during a Justice Department press conference Wednesday.
“If President Trump wanted to fire anybody within his administration, he understands he has the power to do that,” Blanche added, speaking generally about the president’s authority. “When he makes a decision about whether to fire a U.S. attorney or anybody else, that’s his.”
Blanche’s response comes after Trump said on Tuesday that he had not decided whether to retain Pirro, a longtime ally whom he accused this week of folding “like an umbrella” when her office abandoned the felony destruction-of-property case against former Olympian David Hearn.
Asked what message Pirro’s firing would send if her office concluded the evidence was insufficient, Blanche again deferred to Trump without endorsing or opposing her removal.
The exchange was notable given that the authority over the employment and supervision of U.S. attorneys is typically exercised through the attorney general. Blanche, who said Wednesday that he has overseen U.S. attorneys as deputy attorney general, has consistently defended Trump’s authority to choose who leads DOJ offices.
Trump’s public frustrations with Pirro surrounded her office’s initial allegations that Hearn ripped the recently-installed sealant from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. A grand jury indicted him last month on a felony charge carrying a potential 10-year prison sentence.
Prior to bringing the charges, Trump insisted on multiple occasions that the damage to the reflecting pool shortly after the pool lining installation had been a result of vandalism.
But her office ultimately reversed course Friday evening, saying in court filings that newly obtained evidence showed overspraying, delamination, and a “botched installation” by a contractor — not vandalism — caused the damage. Prosecutors also moved to dismiss charges against three other people.
Trump responded Monday by suggesting Pirro had “choked” under pressure from an unfriendly judge. Pirro later visited the White House carrying a box of evidence that she used to explain the dismissal, according to multiple news reports.
Blanche would not say whether he knew in advance that the charges would be dropped or whether he approved the decision, citing internal deliberations.
“I don’t approve or disapprove decisions that our U.S. attorneys make in a general matter,” he said.
Still, Blanche defended Pirro’s broader record, saying her office had done a “phenomenal job” combating violent crime and making Washington safer.
TRUMP HAS SOURED ON JEANINE PIRRO, BUT SHE CAN STILL SAVE HER JOB
“Does that mean that every case goes exactly the way that President Trump or I want, or U.S. Attorney Pirro wants? Of course not,” Blanche said.
After the decision to dismiss Hearn’s case, Pirro also moved to drop charges against three other individuals who were initially accused of attempted vandalism near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.