Analysis of Trump DOJ results pours cold water on his pledge to jail DC 'vandals'

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Paint peels from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after recent renovations, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

President Donald Trump has threatened a decade in jail for the people who supposedly vandalized Washington DC institutions like the Reflecting Pool — yet his own Justice Department’s recent results poke a giant hole in that claim.

“On Monday, one might have expected a stiff punishment when Washington resident Micah Avery Jr. was finally sentenced after a five-year legal saga that began during the mass protests against racism and police violence in the spring of 2020,” Politico’s Josh Gerstein reported on Monday. “Avery was charged with destruction of federal property for painting the words ‘Yall not tired yet?’ onto one of the stone outcroppings of the Lincoln Memorial.”

Gerstein made this point because Trump claims the people he accused of vandalizing major monuments will receive 10 years in jail for doing so.

“If you so much as touch, or even think about destroying, a statue or a monument in Washington D.C., you go to jail for 10 years with no probation, no anything,” Trump said earlier this month to justify his attempt to take over the Washington DC police force and deploy the National Guard troops throughout the city.

“You get jailed 10 years, no curtailed sentence, 10 years,” Trump added, in comments that the administration referenced again when accusing people of sabotaging his Reflecting Pool renovations.

Yet Avery, a Black Lives Matter protester who spray-painted a slogan on the Lincoln Memorial, received a plea deal under Trump’s own Justice Department that included one year of probation, 60 hours of community service and a $500 fine.

“The key decisions leading to that sentence — handed down in federal court Monday afternoon — were made under Trump appointees: Ed Martin, the controversial interim U.S. attorney for Washington at the outset of Trump’s second term, and Jeanine Pirro, Martin’s Senate-confirmed successor,” Gerstein reported. “Under Martin, federal prosecutors and Avery’s defense attorney hashed out a deal to downgrade Avery’s case from a felony to a misdemeanor. It is just the sort of plea bargain that Trump has repeatedly suggested would not take place.”

Gerstein added, “That deal was presented to and approved by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, in the first days of Pirro’s tenure. And earlier this month, Pirro and her deputies recommended that the judge give Avery probation, even though he could have received up to a year in prison under the plea deal.”

A White House spokesperson dismissed the outcome of Avery’s case as an aberration caused by recordkeeping issues.

“Improperly kept records from a crime that was committed five years ago limited the penalties this individual was able to receive,” a spokesperson told Politico. “The administration will continue to seek the highest penalty available and not tolerate any sort of vandalism or destruction of our beautiful monuments and memorials.”

Trump’s position on vandals is particularly relevant now because he is accusing vandals, including a former Olympic canoeist, of causing the Reflecting Pool to turn algae green with peeling paint during his renovations. The president has provided no evidence to back up any of his claims, with Olympian David Hearn saying he merely touched a piece of the peeling paint that had already been dislodged. Trump also says vandals slashed a gash in the sealant as large as a football field, even though such an act would have been observed by onlookers.

"Reflecting Pool story: Under Obama, responsible people carefully studied the problem, sought best solutions - and failed,” posted conservative journalist David Frum on Sunday. “Under Trump, irresponsible people imposed a hasty solution that enriched inept cronies - and failed even more spectacularly."

A prominent former government official echoed Frum’s sentiments.

"Like most things Trump touches, the Reflecting Pool is now in worse shape than before,” former US Attorney Barbara McQuade posted on X on Sunday. “Adding cosmetic paint did not solve the underlying problem. And now he baselessly blames vandals for his failure."

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