FLASH: Justice Dept seeks to dismiss Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn
Trump Admin acknowledges: "Damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor"
Big admission of a big mistake by Team Trump
In court filing tonight, Justice Dept admits they have information about Reflecting Pool: "showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by Dept of Interior"
US Atty Jeanine Pirro's court filing says Justice Dept met w/ park officials on July 1 at Reflecting Pool.. but admits pool "remained filled w/ water, making it difficult to observe the condition of the floor of the entire pool, which was mostly obscured as it covered w/ water"
In this 20 page court filing, the Justice Dept throws the Trump Admin's Dept of Interior under the bus...
On several occasions.....
Jeanine Pirro's court filing attributes the damage to the pool to botched installation:
"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"
And then there's this:
Per court filings, a park service engineer sent an alert warning of "peeling" in Reflecting Pool EIGHT DAYS BEFORE David Hearn was seen and arrested near the Pool
Trump's aggressive timetable for this project gets some blame too
From Justice Dept: "The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed."
The final paragraph of the Justice Dept's motion to dismiss case against David Hearn is quite something:
"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. Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism"
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