US Attorney General Todd Blanche defended Jeanine Pirro for dismissing a federal vandalism case in a decision that angered President Donald Trump, saying the top prosecutor in Washington, DC, should be judged fairly.
Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Trump who was sworn in last week as head of the Justice Department, took Pirro’s side after she decided not to prosecute a former Olympian initially charged with vandalizing the lining of the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
He said Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, was pursuing other cases of alleged vandalism — and claimed Trump backs her, too.
“I absolutely support US Attorney Pirro, as does President Trump,” Blanche said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Now, that’s different than whether the president is extraordinarily frustrated at what happened in that case. And I don’t in any way fault him for that.”
Trump has previously lashed out at Pirro, a longtime ally of the president, after her office said in a court filing that “botched” construction work was primarily to blame for damage to the coating of the pool.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the damage on vandals, without providing evidence.
Asked whether he’d promise that the Justice Department would always act independently of the White House, Blanche said, “No, I can’t pledge that,” arguing he can’t obligate himself to oppose policy goals set by the president. Instead, Blanche said, he and federal prosecutors “will act with integrity.”
“We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor,” he told NBC. The Justice Department traditionally decides what cases to prosecute without White House interference.
Read More: Trump Says He Is Undecided on Keeping Pirro as Top DC Prosecutor
Blanche sought to shift attention to other cases of alleged vandalism at national monuments in the capital, saying Pirro “is doing a phenomenal job of enforcing that.”
“And I think judging her on a single case because of the evidence that we had is not fair,” Blanche told NBC.
While Blanche didn’t cite specific incidents, Pirro’s office last week charged a Kentucky woman with vandalism for spraying the World War II memorial on the National Mall with graffiti.
Blanche said he’d consider Trump’s opinion if the president pressed for the Reflecting Pool case to be revived.
“Will I take the president of the United States’ view on something into consideration? Yes, of course,” he said. Even so, “the president does not expect any of his leaders, including me, to just say ‘Yes’ to him no matter what he says.” he added.
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