AUGUST 2, 2026
Justice Department drops Reflecting Pool vandalism charge, citing contractor failures; Trump publicly disagrees with U.S. Attorney Pirro
The Justice Department on Friday moved to dismiss a felony destruction of property charge against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who had been accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's newly installed lining. Prosecutors cited newly disclosed documents from the Department of the Interior showing that the $14 million renovation project, carried out by contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings, suffered widespread lining failures almost immediately after completion. President Trump publicly disagreed with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Truth Social the following day, writing that the damage was "a pure case of VANDALISM."
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was renovated beginning in early May, with Virginia-based firm Atlantic Industrial Coatings holding a no-bid contract worth more than $14 million to install a new protective lining across the pool's roughly 340,000-square-foot floor. The project was driven by an expedited timeline set by the Trump administration to complete the work before Independence Day celebrations marking America's 250th anniversary — a deadline that, according to CNN, pushed the cost to nearly seven times the initial $1.8 million estimate.
Construction encountered problems from the start. Spring rain delays required crews to pump standing water from the pool floor so the coating could dry, and a quality control inspector flagged "blistering" in finished sections and called for repairs after AIC ran out of one of its primary coating products, Rhino 406. On June 9, crews completed a final inspection and refilled the pool. Just two days later, a National Park Service engineer noted peeling along the pool's perimeter, writing in an email that "overspray" from a polyurea joint sealant could leave a one-to-two-foot strip "vulnerable to peeling." AIC itself later said that "99% of anything that was going to fail" would appear within a couple of weeks of finishing the renovation, according to the DOJ's filing.
Hearn was indicted on July 2 on one count of felony destruction of property after U.S. Park Police alleged he pulled at the pool's protective coating on June 19 — eight days after the engineer's warning email — despite being told by a National Park Service employee to stop. Prosecutors stated that the Department of the Interior initially provided only "barebones" reports and withheld documents showing the lining had begun failing almost immediately after installation. "Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment," prosecutors wrote in the Friday filing. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges could be brought again.