The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has dropped its case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in connection with damage to the Reflecting Pool, acknowledging their allegations against David “Davey” Hearn don’t hold water.

In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined “the evidentiary basis for the indictment” against Hearn.

Prosecutors said that after the indictment, the Interior Department “provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.”

DOJ said they “first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” after reviewing more documents.

The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

A spokesperson for Pirro said the filing spoke for itself. Her office also moved to dismiss at least one of the other three misdemeanor cases that had been brought in connection with the Reflecting Pool.

  • elbuchoEnglish
    10·
    8 hours ago

    Nope - Trump demanded that they take him out there so that he could see the progress in person, but he didn’t want to walk, 'cause that’d be too much effort and poor Natalie Harp’s arms would get tired from carrying all his backup diapers. So they got a motorcade together and drove to the reflecting pool, but he couldn’t get a good enough vantage point from the side, so he had them drive onto the freshly sealed surface.

    • Monument@piefed.worldEnglish
      3·
      7 hours ago

      The freshly sealed surface that’s designed to hold water, not armored vehicles, mind you.

      It’s very possible that not only is the unnecessary pool liner damaged, but the underlying concrete is, too.