The Justice Department moved Friday to dismiss a criminal case against David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist who had been charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing that new evidence obtained after his indictment fundamentally undermined the case against him.
In a 20-page filing, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote that the government “first became aware of information showing that the damage” was not the result of deliberate vandalism. Instead, the Justice Department concluded that the damage to the pool was caused by flawed installation work by Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based contractor that performed the renovation, combined with rushed completion timelines tied to America 250 celebration events surrounding Independence Day 2026.
“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,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
The dismissal represents a dramatic reversal from just weeks earlier when the Trump administration had prominently charged Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, with a single felony count of destruction of property. The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and accused him of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool’s sealant.
Hearn, who competed as a canoeist in three Summer Olympics—the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Games—with his best Olympic finish of ninth place at the 1996 Atlanta Games, had been arrested after an incident on June 19. According to accounts he provided, he was riding his bicycle past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool when he stopped to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating. He reached in briefly to touch a chunk of material that had already detached from the side of the pool but immediately released it when a park worker instructed him to do so.
When originally announcing the indictment in July, Pirro had asserted that National Park Service employees witnessed Hearn “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner” of the pool. The government alleged he was belligerent and disrespectful to park staff.
However, the case began crumbling almost immediately after Hearn’s indictment on July 2. His attorneys challenged the prosecution on multiple grounds, citing what they described as irregularities in grand jury proceedings and claiming authorities had destroyed evidence that would prove his innocence.
The renovation project itself had been a troubled affair from its inception. President Donald Trump had championed the ambitious overhaul of the reflecting pool, announcing in April that it could be completed in a week for approximately $1 million. The project ultimately ballooned to more than $14 million. The Interior Department awarded the no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, marking the company’s first federal contract.
Within weeks of the renovation’s completion in early June, chunks of the newly applied blue coating—which Trump had personally selected and labeled “American Flag Blue”—began peeling away from the bottom of the pool. Algae blooms also rapidly returned, turning the water green despite promises that advanced filtration technology would prevent such problems.
Initially, Trump and administration officials blamed vandals for the damage, with the president claiming a “350-foot gash” had been deliberately cut into the pool’s liner. Multiple people were arrested and charged in connection with alleged vandalism before prosecutors eventually obtained more detailed information about the installation process and the rush to complete the project before Fourth of July celebrations.
According to the Interior Department documents obtained after Hearn’s indictment, the coating had failed due to improper installation techniques rather than deliberate damage. Experts had previously suggested that the peeling likely resulted from problems in how the material was applied, including possible substrate preparation issues, application conditions, or adhesion failures.
Hearn’s legal team, led by attorneys including Norman Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, and Steven Levin, immediately responded to the dismissal announcement. They stated that the government “owes Mr. Hearn an apology” and said the Trump administration’s case against him “should have never been brought.” The attorneys characterized the prosecution as an abuse of government power against a patriotic American who had done nothing wrong.
“The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim,” his legal team said in a statement.
The dismissal marks an embarrassing setback for federal prosecutors, who had positioned the Hearn prosecution as accountability for damage to a Washington landmark discovered in the lead-up to major Fourth of July festivities.