Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation

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 came down on July 2, the Interior Department provided additional documents to the U.S. Attorney’s Office “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 it “first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” after reviewing more documents. “Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” the filing said. DOJ said when it presented the case to a grand jury, it was “not in possession of any information from DOI indicating that any damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by anything other than the actions of the defendant and other vandals who damaged the pool’s lining.” 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. President Donald Trump blamed vandals for the issues with the pool after he announced a plan to coat the bottom with “American flag blue” ahead of America’s 250th birthday. The project faced several setbacks, and the cost grew considerably beyond his original estimates. The coating began coming up and algae flooded the water once the pool was refilled. Trump has made repeated claims about vandals cutting 350-foot slits into the Reflecting Pool — saying at different times they used a knife, a box cutter and a razor. He called the alleged vandals “thugs” and said they were “sick” and “terrible.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening. Hearn had told NBC News that the pool’s condition was exactly the same after he stuck his hands in the water as it was when he arrived. He pleaded not guilty after he was charged with destruction of property and accused of doing more than $1,000 worth of damage to the pool. “The Government’s case against Davey Hearn should never have been brought,” Hearn attorney Steven Levin said in a statement Friday. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American. The government’s approach was ready, shoot, aim. The federal government owes Mr. Hearn an apology.” The government’s case against Hearn had been flooded with problems. A key witness initially wasn’t able to represent to a grand jury that the damage the government accused Hearn of causing would have cost more than $1,000, the key threshold it needed to meet to bring a felony case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington, a rookie federal prosecutor, earlier in the week accused Hearn’s defense attorneys of violating grand jury secrecy rules. But as Hearn’s defense attorneys noted, the rules that Reddington cited applied to government attorneys, not defense attorneys.