Wednesday on MS NOW’s “All In,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said there was a “chain of lies” that goes all the way to the Oval Office on the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Host Jacob Soboroff said, “I saw a letter on another topic that you and Senator Heinrich sent, about the reflecting pool. And you requested that the Office of the Inspector General investigate what employees at the Department of the Interior knew. And when they knew it, regarding the peeling of the coating and other engineering issues at the memorial. If the Department of the Interior employees ended up withholding evidence from Jeanine Pirro’s office, if the IG finds anything, it’s any kind of accountability that we could see there.
Whitehouse said, “Yeah, quite a lot, actually. And particularly in court proceedings, the supposed vandal, the Olympian, Mr. Hearn, has just filed a new pleading. In that case, charging ethics violations against the prosecutors and against the Department of the Interior, asking for grand jury transcripts, pointing out evidence that they had of his innocence before they charged him, and saying very directly that the office of Pirro violated ethics rules with respect to the way they talked about him in the press. And with respect to the way they conducted his case in bad faith and for political motive. So that’s very, very rough stuff. And considering where this case is, I think that investigation will continue. And these questions about the Department of Interior’s conduct will continue to be pursued. There’s a chain of lies that goes from the individual park police officers at the scene, all the way up to the Oval Office and in that chain, finding out who lied, who was told to lie.”
He added, “They have a real obligation to find out who lied, who knew what and when they knew it. And Senator Heinrich and I have put the Interior Department inspector general on the case. I think they recognize that they have to look into this.”
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