WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has dropped its case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in connection with damage to the Reflecting Pool, acknowledging their allegations against David “Davey” Hearn don’t hold water.

In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined “the evidentiary basis for the indictment” against Hearn.

Prosecutors said that after the indictment, the Interior Department “provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.”

DOJ said they “first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” after reviewing more documents.

The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

A spokesperson for Pirro said the filing spoke for itself. Her office also moved to dismiss at least one of the other three misdemeanor cases that had been brought in connection with the Reflecting Pool.

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[–] 44 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Driving an armored motorcade through it sure didn’t help, and the installation of lining doesn’t even address leakage or any issues with the pool anyway, just handing money to friends.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    They used a fucking spray on truck bed liner…

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    It's a similar, but different different coating from the bedliner stuff, meant for chemical storage tanks. The problem is that it can't be done in sections because it doesn't adhere to itself once it skins over.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    And then when blame time comes, throwing those friends under the motorcade.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Nah he rehired the same guy to redo it and for other projects around the district unfortunately.

    And arresting someone several days after pieces were filmed floating in the water, and only dropping it when the masses wouldn’t blindly follow? That’s icing on the ‘we know what caused it’ cake.

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