President Donald Trump criticized U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro after her office filed a motion to dismiss criminal charges against David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Pirro’s court filing indicated that damage to the pool resulted from faulty contractor installation and the rushed timeline to complete renovations ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration last month, rather than deliberate vandalism as Trump has claimed.
Pirro’s decision to drop the case represented a significant reversal. When she announced Hearn’s indictment last month, she characterized the government’s case as built on “tremendous evidence.” However, newly disclosed documents from the Interior Department showed that damage appeared throughout the pool, including in areas where vandalism would be unlikely. Pirro stated in her filing that it had become “difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” She also blamed the Interior Department for providing incomplete information at the outset, asserting the government would not have sought an indictment had full disclosure occurred.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum disputed Pirro’s characterization, posting that some vandalism acts were captured on video and that his department provided expert testimony and eyewitness accounts. Trump responded by posting a nearly four-minute security camera video showing three individuals with their hands in the pool, though it remained unclear from the distance-shot footage whether vandalism actually occurred.
Hearn’s legal team criticized both Trump and Pirro, stating that the president was upset because Pirro finally acknowledged what they had argued throughout: that construction defects, not vandalism, caused the damage. The team rejected Pirro’s claim of being misled by the administration. The pool renovation was a Trump-directed project completed in May, with Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract. Damage emerged within days of completion, with chunks of the new liner peeling off.
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