CNN breaks down DOJ's admission that Reflecting Pool renovation was flawed
(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected the Justice Department’s conclusion that problems with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool stemmed from a flawed renovation rather than vandalism.
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s post comes a day after the Justice Department acknowledged in a court filing that the president’s $14 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool was “hasty and botched” and said it was dropping the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the landmark.
The DOJ filing marked an embarrassing reversal from Pirro and a sharp reversal from the administration’s earlier claims that vandals were responsible for the deteriorating pool lining, algae blooms and green-colored water that appeared after the renovation.
Three other people have been swept up in the administration’s push to blame the pool’s problems on alleged vandals — each pleading not guilty to lesser, misdemeanor charges. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges against at least two of those people as well, according to DC court records and a lawyer representing one of the defendants.
Trump in May ordered the pricey renovations to the pool, including painting the bottom an intense blue, to be completed by 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 about 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.
“The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI,” Pirro’s office wrote in Hearn’s case Friday.
“A recent visual inspection showed damage throughout the Reflecting Pool, even in the middle of the pool, where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining,” prosecutors added. “Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dismissed the findings in a social media post Saturday afternoon, saying that “The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool.”
Prosecutors’ timeline contradicts Trump’s claims
Trump — without providing evidence — has repeatedly blamed alleged “vandals” for destroying his pet project on the National Mall, calling them “sick, deranged” criminals who deserved “years in jail.”
“The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX,” Trump railed on Truth Social on July 17, calling them “animals.” Trump’s estimation of the vandalism grew from a “250 foot long gash” in June to 300-yard-long “slashes” in July.
But the timeline Pirro’s federal prosecutors lay out in the new court filing refutes Trump’s repeated claims.
In fact, the first signs that large chunks of the blue lining were peeling away from the bottom of the pool came more than a week before former Olympian Hearn visited the landmark.
On June 11, a National Park Service engineer alerted Interior Department colleagues to some peeling of the liner around the perimeter of the pool, according to an email Pirro’s office obtained in recent days. Prosecutors noted Friday it was the same part of the pool liner Hearn was accused of ripping up.
Hearn was arrested eight days later, on June 19, and indicted on July 2.
Weeks after Hearn was indicted for causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool, federal prosecutors say they received information from the Interior Department documenting serious issues with the contractor’s work.
The Interior Department “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case,” Pirro’s office wrote, in a startling accusation against an agency in the executive branch. “Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.”
Burgum, in his post Saturday afternoon, pushed back on the Justice Department’s claims, saying some of the alleged acts were caught on camera.
“We also provided the U.S. Attorney’s office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool,” he wrote.
Prosecutors also wrote in the Friday filing that they “received barebones police reports from the United States Park Police.”
The US attorney and her prosecutors say they weren’t able to fully view the extent of the damage until July 17, after the pool was drained again.
“None of the DOI employees suggested that the poor condition of the Reflecting Pool was largely the result of failures during the process of installing the liner,” Pirro’s office wrote Friday.
After requesting more documents on the pool’s renovation, Pirro’s office said that information “indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool.”
The work, the prosecutors said, was rushed because of the events being hosted on the National Mall for the nation’s 250th birthday.
Hearn’s attorneys call for apology
Hearn, a former Team USA Olympic canoeist, had been accused of ripping a small square of the blue coating up when the massive pool was filled with water in June, as algae growth drew an uptick in onlookers and protesters.
“It was not until after the return of the indictment” of Hearn that the Interior Department provided additional documents to the US attorney’s office “indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026,” Pirro’s office wrote.
When CNN called the contractor Friday evening, an employee with Atlantic Industrial Coatings said they hadn’t heard anything about the new filing, adding, “No comment.”
Hearn previously pleaded not guilty to the felony charge in DC’s Superior Court. His attorneys vowed they would fight the case. A large number of his neighbors and fellow canoeists from nearby Maryland have protested the Justice Department.
His attorneys have argued that the case has been indicative of a Justice Department that bends to the president’s whims to persecute his political critics.
Hearn’s attorneys said in a statement Friday reacting to the decision, “The Trump administration’s case against David Hearn should never have been brought. Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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