The Justice Department is admitting that President Donald Trump’s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was “hasty and botched,” and it is dropping the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn that accused him of vandalizing the pool, according to a new court filing from DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
The admissions are an embarrassing reversal for Pirro and Trump, who have insisted publicly for weeks that vandals were solely responsible for the severely damaged pool lining, chronic algae blooms and green-hued water at the iconic landmark.
Three other people have been swept up in the administration’s push to blame the pool’s problems on alleged vandals — each facing lesser, misdemeanor charges. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges against at least one of those people as well Friday, according to DC court records.
Trump in May ordered the pricey renovations to the pool, including painting the bottom an intense blue, to be completed in time for the Fourth of July. The renovation — one of many aesthetic changes to monuments that Trump has directed across Washington, DC, this summer — drew significant criticism.
In an unusually descriptive filing of the shoddy work on the Reflecting Pool this summer, Pirro’s office pointed fingers directly at other federal agencies, including the Interior Department, for the bungled renovation and Hearn’s vandalism case.
