The administration of United States President Donald Trump has moved to drop the criminal charges against former Olympic athlete David Hearn, in a remarkable about-face.
In motion filed on Friday afternoon, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro acknowledged that the accusations levelled against Hearn — blaming him for vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — did not appear to be substantiated.
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“The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism, as initially represented by [the Department of the Interior],” Pirro wrote.
Earlier this month, the prosecutor had accused Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, of “forcefully and violently” ripping the newly installed liner of the Reflecting Pool, part of a renovation project Trump had championed.
She described his actions as “an affront to the dignity of our shared history” and warned that Hearn could face up to ۱۰ years in prison for the destruction of government property.
But in Friday’s court filings, a different narrative emerged.
Pirro repeatedly emphasised she did not receive the new information until after the criminal indictment against Hearn had been returned. She blamed, in part, the “barebones police reports” her office had received.
“It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the [US Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC] indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June ۲۰۲۶ was the result of flawed installation by the contractor,” Pirro wrote.
She added that the pressure to finish the Reflecting Pool renovation project before the Independence Day holiday — marking the ۲۵۰th anniversary of the US — contributed to the renovation’s failure. Trump had planned several events for the occasion.
“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” Pirro explained, citing delayed installation work, inclement weather and repeated testing failures.
Reshaping Washington, DC
The Reflecting Pool project is one of several changes to the landscape of Washington, DC, that Trump has pursued during his second term in office.
In seeking to leave his mark on the US capital, the Republican leader has torn down the East Wing of the White House, gilded statues with a fresh coat of gold leaf, and proposed to build a large triumphal arch on the road to the Arlington National Cemetery.
Just this week, he unveiled a $۲۲.۵bn project to revamp the Dulles International Airport, the main air terminal for the capital region.
Several of his public works projects have been challenged in court, including an attempt to affix his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Reflecting Pool renovation was among Trump’s most controversial.
The ۶۱۸-metre (۲,۰۲۸-foot) pool has served as the backdrop for many iconic moments in US history, including the ۱۹۶۳ March on Washington, when civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
It sits between the Washington Monument, a large obelisk, and the Lincoln Memorial, two popular tourists sites mere blocks from the White House. But the pool had long struggled with leaks along its granite edge and concrete bottom.
In April, Trump abruptly announced he would address the problem by resurfacing the Reflecting Pool’s bottom with swimming pool topping in a shade of “American Flag Blue”.
The project, he added, would be finished “long before July ۴” and at relatively little cost to the government.
By early June, Trump had announced the project completed. But within days, a thick layer of green algae appeared on the surface of the pool, and the blue pool topper appeared cracked, with sheets of paint flapping in the water.
The project also attracted criticism for how the government contract for the renovations was awarded.
The Trump administration granted a $۱۳.۱bn contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company he claimed to have worked with as a real estate developper, led by one of his donors. The deal was struck without taking competitive bids, as is standard, on the basis that the renovation was necessary immediately.
Within two days of the site’s final inspection, on June ۱۱, a National Park Service engineer observed that the Reflecting Pool’s new lining had begun to peel, according to Pirro.
Citing the engineer’s report, Pirro wrote that the damage to the pool appeared to have been caused by “over spraying and delamination”.
Accusations of vandalism
But Trump had aggressively pushed accusations that the algae and tears in the Reflecting Pool’s new bottom had been the result of vandalism.
“We caught some people vandalising our beautiful Reflecting Pool,” Trump said at a news conference in June. “They took a cutter, a box cutter, or something very sharp. Can you imagine? Where do these people come up with this? And they threw a little fertiliser in the water.”
Separately, he suggested those responsible should face “years in jail” for their alleged crimes.
Hearn, a three-time Olympian representing the US, has said he was among the members of the public drawn to the hullabaloo surrounding the Reflecting Pool’s controversial renovation.
In media interviews, he admitted he bicycled past the pool, reached in and felt the peeling sealant, out of curiosity. He has adamantly denied, however, damaging any property.
Hearn was ultimately among the seven people charged with harming the Reflecting Pool. His indictment was announced in a news conference held by Pirro on July ۲.
Friday’s motion to dismiss arrived just four weeks later. In it, Pirro acknowledged the peeling was not caused by vandalism.
She wrote that the revelation came around July ۱۷, when her office inspected the Reflecting Pool site, which had once again been drained for repairs.
“It was at that time that [US District Attorney’s Office] first became aware of the significant damage throughout the pool and accordingly requested all documents from [the Department of the Interior] concerning the how the pool was lined,” Pirro said.
Her office received “۶۹۵ megabytes of additional documents” in return, revealing “a rushed and flawed installation process”.
Since indicting Hearn, Pirro’s office has faced questions about whether it was pursuing justice — or simply doing Trump’s political bidding, as he seeks to save face after the botched renovation.
The withdrawn indictment also comes as courts have repeatedly pressed the Department of Justice about prosecutions that appear to be hastily submitted and lacking in evidence.
“ Did you ultimately decide to charge this so harshly at the president’s direction?” one reporter asked Pirro at the outset of Hearn’s case.
“I didn’t charge anything harshly. I charge according to the evidence,” she replied at the time.
In a statement, Hearn’s legal team called the case an “abuse of government power”. It added that the Trump administration owes their client an apology.
