White House drops charges against former Olympian accused of vandalising Reflecting Pool after new evidence emerges

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has dropped charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The iconic Washington landmark underwent a $16million renovation, led by Donald Trump and coinciding with the US's 250th anniversary.

But the restoration project was troubled, ballooning from its initial $2.1million budget after facing algae blooms and pieces of the pool's new "American flag blue" seemingly peeling off its bottom.

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, was one of several Americans accused of vandalising the pool - but now the US has dropped the charges after receiving new documents from the US Department of the Interior (DOI) about the pool's damage.

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A motion to dismiss, filed by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said the DOI submitted documents "indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC), and the rush to complete the project" before July 4.

These "recently-produced" materials led to Ms Pirro, a former TV host, to dismiss the indictment without prejudice.

The motion claims the DOI provided "less than fulsome information" at the start of the case, adding that the US Attorney would not have charged Mr Hearn if it was aware of the "rushed and botched installation" by AIC.

"Specifically, the newly released documents reveal that work on installing the lining almost immediately fell behind, due to a combination of very rainy and windy weather, repeated failures of testing on the sealing of the expansion joints, and delays in obtaining sealing product at the worksite," Ms Pirro wrote.

"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."

Further evidence which led to the White House dropping the charges included an engineer report which pointed to contractor error and a "recent visual inspection" which showed damage in the middle of the pool "where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining".

The 67-year-old Mr Hearn, who pleaded not guilty to the charges last month, was the only alleged vandal facing felony charges, rather than a misdemeanor.

His trial, on a charge of destruction of property, was set to begin on September 28.

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Lawyers for the former Olympian insisted the charges should never have been filed and have called for the White House to apologise.

"Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong," Mr Hearn's lawyers, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin said in a statement.

Six other Americans have been arrested on charges of vandalism, officials told The New York Times.

Following Mr Hearn's arrest, Mr Trump had warned that those vandalising the landmark could face up to 10 years in prison and said "many people" had conducted "disgraceful vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool".

"They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool," the President alleged on Truth Social in June.

Mr Trump added: "The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened. We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of beauty."

No alleged vandals have been charged with slashing the paint.

Controversy has surrounded the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after the White House awarded no-bid contracts in an effort to rush the renovation before American's 250th birthday on July 4.

On July 5, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told CNN he was 100 per cent sure the damage had been done by vandals, and insisted the "the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well".

Currently, the Reflecting Pool is empty - the third time it has been drained in as many months.

GB News has approached the DOI for comment.

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