Trump & Co. need to reflect on fake pool cases

The federal government publicly conceded last week what had been widely suspected for more than a month: President Donald Trump's taxpayer-funded $15 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington was botched by those carrying out the project.

By mid-June, after the task of painting the pool bottom "American flag blue" was completed, algae blooms turned the water green. And the new coating began peeling off into floating chunks. The fiasco created a big embarrassment as the nation's 250th anniversary neared.

The contractor, with the unfortunate name Greenwater Services, is owned by a trust headed by John J. Cafaro, a neighbor of Trump's "second White House" at Mar-a-Lago. Instead of fixing his own office's slapdash procurement, Trump looked to blame others by screaming about "thugs" and "vandalism" and criminal acts that never happened.

A snafu gives way to an ominous scandal when the freedom and livelihoods of law-abiding citizens are recklessly threatened to help the president avoid embarrassment.

On June 19, former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested and charged with a felony for allegedly damaging the pool lining. He'd been on a bike ride that day and stopped by the pool. Hearn apparently reached in and touched liner material out of curiosity. No evidence was produced that he tore it open, as U.S. Park Police claimed.

Jeanine Pirro, the former Westchester County GOP prosecutor and judge serving as U.S. attorney in Washington, also claimed three others committed misdemeanors, but the cases were so pitifully weak she had no choice but to drop the charges.

One of the defendants, Justin Carreno, was fired from two jobs as a government contractor, his attorney said, over the frivolous prosecution. "At minimum, he is entitled to public apology," said lawyer Mark Zaid. We agree with that for Carreno, Hearn and the two others who had their cases dropped, while knowing that Trump has never apologized for transgressive conduct.

Also cleared was Sophie Dennison-Gibby, a longtime veterinarian, who told The Washington Post that she's "obsessed about picking up litter," saw what she thought was trash in the Reflecting Pool, and grabbed it to protect wildlife. Her arrest was made more eerie by Trump's calling those prosecuted "sick people" who gashed the lining.

Insisting criminal activity took place, Trump attacked his longtime friend Pirro who he said "choked" and "folded like an umbrella" under a judge's pressure. Pirro promptly turned on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, blaming him for misleading the president that there was evidence of vandalism.

Finger-pointing within the White House creates a sideshow. False criminal charges, filed by prosecutors with vast power under the control of a vindictive president, reek of a grim authoritarian abuse of the justice system.

Prosecuting ex-FBI Director James Comey — whom Trump considers an enemy — for a photo of numerically arranged seashells is crazy enough. But cuffing everyday citizens in a paranoid search for scapegoats is worse because it means no one is safe from arrest on trumped-up charges.

A president like Lincoln would reflect and apologize.