(CNN) — Nothing about what happened Friday, when the Justice Department dropped its case against a purported Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandal, was completely surprising.
But that’s also what makes it so scandalous.
The administration was pressed repeatedly about the possibility that the damage to the Reflecting Pool wasn’t caused by vandals. Maybe it was just shoddy installation from the no-bid contractor that President Donald Trump hired. Maybe it was just a rushed job, reporters posited, given Trump wanted the pool ready for Independence Day celebrations.
But the administration repeatedly and forcefully rejected these theories, straining to claim the damage was actually the work of radical-left vandals bent on destroying our country’s precious monuments. It said this was proven and documented. And it eventually brought a high-profile case against someone – former Olympic canoeist David Hearn – who has spent that last month fending off a potential felony conviction.
The government moved to drop that case in typical Friday news-dump fashion, when many people have already tuned out for the weekend. And in doing so, it made some major admissions.
Basically, the Justice Department said this was exactly what it seemed to be – that the damage “was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.”
Furthermore, it pointed the finger at the Department of Interior for willfully withholding information that would have demonstrated that fact and prevented the base from ever being brought.
“DOI provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case,” the DOJ said in its filing.
It added: “Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.”
In normal times, all of that would be the stuff of major investigations and even congressional inquiries. According to Trump’s own administration, other parts of the government withheld information, allowing for an unwarranted criminal case to be brought against an innocent man. And the DOJ brought a clearly shoddy case without getting all the information first.
And all, it bears emphasizing, while furthering Trump’s political goals. Trump started claiming vandalism in mid-June after his coveted Reflecting Pool renovation began to quickly deteriorate – raising even more questions about his handling of the situation. It looks a lot like yet another hasty prosecution brought for Trump’s political purposes has fallen apart.
But it’s also worth just reflecting on how dishonestly and overzealously the administration prosecuted this case in public.
Over and over, it claimed things that have now been directly undermined by the new DOJ filing. And when pressed on alternative explanations that have now borne out, it flatly rejected them.
Shortly after Trump first raised the specter of vandals being responsible, a reporter in June asked him if it might just be the contractor’s fault.
“No, no, vandals,” Trump said, claiming they had cut a “300-foot slit” in the pool
When a reporter suggested it was odd that someone could vandalize the pool in such a way, given the “National Guard and police have been all over the Mall,” Trump assured there was proof.
“I can’t help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up,” Trump added. “And we also have pictures of it.”
Those pictures never arrived. (In fact, the DOJ didn’t even accuse Hearn of using a sharp object.)
Trump went on to claim these were “thugs,” “sick people,” “people that want to destroy our country,” “Radical Left SCUM that hate our Country” and “Country hating sleazebags.” The length of the supposed slit in the pool gradually grew from 300 feet to 300 yards.
Hearn was eventually indicted on July 2. It was the only felony vandalism case, upgraded from a misdemeanor when the government claimed he caused at least $1,000 in damage. (The government also dropped at least two of the three misdemeanor charges it brought against other people.) And US Attorney Jeanine Pirro decided to hold a press conference.
When a reporter asked Pirro whether the pool was “probably damaged before” the Hearn incident, she repeatedly rejected the premise.
“Oh, he damaged it,” Pirro said.
“But do you believe it had already been damaged before?” she was asked.
“He damaged the pool,” Pirro said again.
“Before he touched it?” she was asked.
“He damaged the pool,” she repeated.
In a later appearance on Fox News (where Pirro worked before becoming a the DC US attorney), host Jesse Watters told Pirro, “A lot of people, when this first happened with the pool, didn’t believe the president that there was vandalism.”
Pirro scoffed audibly.
“When these anarchists come – and we have witnesses – they’re like, ‘oh, we didn’t do anything,’” she said, adding that the vandals act like “they have the right to destroy a monument.”
“No, you don’t,” Pirro said emphatically.
A few days later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum talked about the situation on the Sunday shows, with CNN’s Dana Bash noting that the Reflecting Pool had already appeared to be peeling before Hearn arrived.
Burgum responded: “It didn’t peel off. There was vandalism. There was box cutters.”
“And you’re 100% sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism? You can prove it?” Bash responded.
“Oh, yes absolutely, Dana,” Burgum said.
Burgum went on: “I’m not sure why you and others in the media think that you want to keep trying to question whether or not … this is an industrial liner.”
He added: “Literally, it would never just like peel off or fall off.”
The Justice Department now says that Burgum’s department was already in possession of information saying that’s exactly what happened – that it had this information nearly a month earlier and withheld it.
“Almost immediately after work was initially completed, peeling was observed along the pool perimeter,” the new DOJ filing said. “The NPS engineer’s June 11, 2026, email stated that the cause of the damage was contractor error via ‘overspray.’”
In the end, this appears to be exactly what it looked like in real time: A bunch of people straining to avoid the evidence right in front of their eyes in order to turn the president’s politically expedient fantasy into a reality.
Even, it turns out, if it risked throwing an innocent man in prison.
The-CNN-Wire
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