A British woman who was accused of vandalising Donald Trump‘s renovated Reflecting Pool has lashed out at the US president after charges against her were dropped.
Sophie Dennison-Gibby, a British veterinarian who works in the US, was one of three people charged with misdemeanours related to damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool following her arrest on June 20.
The pool, which had undergone a multi-million dollar restoration between April and June, had begun to peel and crack within days of its completion.
Trump claimed two days after Ms. Dennison-Gibby’s arrest that the pool had been deliberately vandalised: ‘They went in there with a knife. I was just told by the people over at Parks… it’s a sad thing.’
But the vet disputed Trump’s version of events, instead saying that she was visiting the Reflecting Pool and noticed what appeared to be a bit of litter in it.
After picking it out of the water, she told the Washington Post, a US marshal arrested her as they said: ‘Well, I wish you hadn’t done that. Now I’m going to arrest you.’
Following her arrest, she was taken to a police station, where she was processed and fingerprinted before she was released that same day.
And after weeks of legal proceedings, the single charge against her was dropped, her lawyer was told on July 31.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial, top, and the World War II Memorial, bottom, is shown
Justice Department officials indicated that the Reflecting Pool was not deliberately damaged, but was likely ruined by a ‘botched’ repair job.
Prosecutors said on Friday that they had only recently come into new information indicating that the damage to the pool was likely caused by contractor error.
But this admission was of little comfort to Ms. Dennison-Gibby, who told the Washington Post the whole episode made her feel ‘sick.’
She said: ‘To be called out by the most powerful person in the world, the president of the United States, and called a sick, violent vandal when all I had done was pick up a piece of trash was awful.’
The pet doctor, who moved to the US in 2004 and was naturalised in 2014, said she was devastated to have been caught up in the Reflecting Pool affair.
She said: ‘The whole experience has just been so heartbreaking. I chose this country. I’ve been naturalised here for 12 years.
‘Nothing about this feels good.’
She said the public humiliation she suffered from the arrest took a heavy toll on her health and business, and lived in fear that her 10-year-old daughter would hear about it.
Ms. Dennison-Gibby said: ‘I wanted to protect her. I wouldn’t have been able to tell her it was going to be okay.’
Charges have also been dropped against Cameron Thiers, who was also accused of a misdemeanour, and 67-year-old former Olympian David Hearn, who was charged with a single felony count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 (£742) in damage.
Trump on Saturday lashed out at Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, who was in charge of leading the prosecution against the three defendants.
In a post to Truth Social, he angrily said: ‘I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking?
‘To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!’
Investigations into David Hearn showed the damage was the result of a ‘flawed installation by the contractor’ and ‘the rush to complete the project’ in time for Trump’s America 250 celebration
David Hearn (pictured), the former Olympian accused of vandalizing Donald Trump’s restored Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, has had his charges dismissed
He added in a follow-up post: ‘Look for yourselves at the VANDALISM that took place at The Reflecting Pool. The material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!’
On Monday, news of the charges being dropped continued to hang over the White House.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: ‘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.’
He added: ‘I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella.’
Trump also refused to answer a follow-up question from a journalist asking whether Pirro would keep her job, instead saying: ‘You’re fake news. Don’t ever talk again.’
According to sources who spoke to the Daily Mail, Pirro took a meeting with Trump at the Oval Office on Monday evening.
Pirro – also a former judge and district attorney, who was appointed as the US Attorney for Washington, DC, last year – personally detailed the evidence to the president who was angry but understanding, a source familiar with the meeting told the Daily Mail.
Pirro, who has the reputation of being no-nonsense, did not try to shift blame or pretend she was not aware of the severity of what had happened.
Government lawyers admitted as such in a 20-page court filing released Friday as DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro (pictured) moved to drop all charges
‘She took the hit, she’s a big girl, she can handle it,’ the source said.
A separate source, however, said that Trump was more angry that he was not informed of the decision in advance.
‘The reason Trump went ballistic is that he didn’t know about it. It didn’t get by him,’ a Washington insider told the Daily Mail.
Sources told the Daily Mail that the news was expected to slip by the president and the media as part of a Friday evening news dump, but he was enraged the next day when he saw the media making it a focus of their news coverage.
