{"id":219047,"date":"2026-08-01T14:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-administration-drops-reflecting-pool-case-blaming-damage-on-botched-installation-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:27:11","slug":"trump-administration-drops-reflecting-pool-case-blaming-damage-on-botched-installation-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-administration-drops-reflecting-pool-case-blaming-damage-on-botched-installation-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on \u2018botched\u2019 installation – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014 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 \u201cDavey\u201d Hearn<\/a> don\u2019t hold water.
In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined \u201cthe evidentiary basis for the indictment\u201d against Hearn.
Prosecutors said that after the indictment came down on July 2<\/a>, the Interior Department provided additional documents to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office \u201cindicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.\u201d
DOJ said it \u201cfirst became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism\u201d after reviewing more documents.
\u201cHad [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,\u201d the filing said.
DOJ said when it presented the case to a grand jury, it was \u201cnot 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\u2019s lining.\u201d
The Justice Department filing said<\/a> that based on its review of evidence, \u201cit is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d
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 \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d ahead of America\u2019s 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<\/a> once the pool was refilled.
Trump has made repeated claims about vandals cutting 350-foot slits into the Reflecting Pool \u2014 saying at different times they used a knife, a box cutter and a razor. He called the alleged vandals \u201cthugs\u201d and said they were \u201csick\u201d and \u201cterrible.\u201d
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
Hearn had told NBC News<\/a> that the pool\u2019s condition was exactly the same after he stuck his hands in the water as it was when he arrived. He pleaded not guilty<\/a> after he was charged with destruction of property and accused of doing more than $1,000 worth of damage to the pool.
\u201cThe Government\u2019s case against Davey Hearn should never have been brought,\u201d Hearn attorney Steven Levin said in a statement Friday. \u201cIts dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American. The government\u2019s approach was ready, shoot, aim. The federal government owes Mr. Hearn an apology.\u201d
The government\u2019s case against Hearn had been flooded with problems. A key witness initially wasn\u2019t able to represent to a grand jury that the damage the government accused Hearn of causing would have cost more than $1,000<\/a>, 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\u2019s defense attorneys of violating grand jury secrecy rules. But as Hearn\u2019s defense attorneys noted<\/a>, the rules that Reddington cited applied to government attorneys, not defense attorneys.
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeWASHINGTON \u2014 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 \u201cDavey\u201d Hearn don\u2019t hold water.In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}