Blanche on Trump potentially firing Pirro: "He's allowed to do that"

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said President Trump would be within his rights to fire Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after she dropped charges in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case.

"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 of the United States," he told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.

"And, by the way, if President Trump wanted to fire anybody within his administration, he understands he has the power to do that. So, when he makes a decision about whether to fire a U.S. attorney or anybody else, that's his."

President Trump told reporters Tuesday night he hasn't decided whether to keep the former Fox News host in the job, saying she was "totally wrong" to drop the case and that he was "not happy" with her.

"I haven't made a determination," he said.

After the president blamed vandalism for the reflecting pool's post-renovation troubles, Ms. Pirro charged David Hearn, a former Olympian who had reached into the water to touch a piece of floating paint. Announcing the charges in early July, she proclaimed she would "prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property."

But on Friday, Ms. Pirro filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying the damage was "the result of a botched installation and not vandalism" and that prosecutors had been misled by the Interior Department.

"I just think she's totally wrong. They did a beautiful job," the president said Tuesday night at Los Angeles International Airport. "There were a couple of little things but that was not a big deal."

"And everybody saw the vandalism," he continued. "All you have to do is look at the tape. If you look at the tape — plus we have a witness or two witnesses that saw the vandalism. So, certainly there was vandalism. Actually, in my opinion, it was major vandalism, and I told her I was not happy."

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