The Reflecting Pool story might finally be coming to an end today as one of the stories that was a prominent subplot seems to be over.
You may remember that a total of seven people were arrested for allegedly damaging the reflecting pool. One of those was David Hearn, a former Olympian who stopped by the pool while on a bike ride.
Exclusive! RAW VIDEO. Man arrested for vandalizing Lincoln Reflecting Pool. He grabbed the hose that female National Park Service workers were using to clear the algae. Police and National Guard responded. Watch pic.twitter.com/oMIXFqKwEs
— emily miller (@emilymiller) June 19, 2026
Hearn denied doing any damage to the pool, but earlier this month he was charged with a felony.
A grand jury in D.C. indicted a former Olympic canoeist on Thursday for vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said.
David Hearn, 67, of Maryland faces one felony count of destruction of property tied to a June 19 incident in which National Park Service employees say they caught him trying to rip a portion of sealant from the pool’s bottom. The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
“We will not allow our sacred monuments to be roped off or diminished or in any way impacted by disgruntled individuals who think that they and not the rest of the nation have the right to decide what should happen,” Pirro said at a news conference. “These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come.”
But today, charges against Hearn were dropped and prosecutors admitted that the peeling of some material from the Reflecting Pool was the result of poor installation.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington said in a court filing that it had received documents showing that the damage to the pool “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration” on July 4.
The U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally, asked a Superior Court judge to drop charges against Mr. Hearn, 67. He was one of seven people facing charges in connection with what President Trump had claimed, without evidence, were efforts to sabotage his administration’s renovation of the pool.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism,” Ms. Pirro wrote in her motion to the court...
Ms. Pirro’s filing was notable in that it amounted to a government acknowledgment that the work was problematic. The Interior Department, which oversees the reflecting pool on the National Mall, also did not immediately comment on the case, and Atlantic Industrial Coatings could not immediately be reached.
There are still six other people facing charges for similar vandalism, though Hearn was the only person charged with a felony. We'll have to wait and see if plans to charge the other six are also dropped. My guess is that the answer is yes. If they've admitted the sealant on the pool was peeling because of poor installation, it's going to be very hard to prove anyone peeled it up intentionally.
So I think this story is finally over and it has to be said that the government, including Trump himself, really pushed the idea this was a vandalism spree and now it looks like it wasn't. There was actual vandalism right next to the Reflecting Pool but no one responsible has been identified or arrested for that. At this point it looks like the real vandals got away with it.
NEW: Federal authorities are investigating a massive ‘8647’ that appears etched into the grass of the National Mall.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2026
‘8647’ has become a mainstream way for President Trump’s critics to show disgust with the commander-in-chief.
‘86’ usually means to axe or kill something,… pic.twitter.com/agrlHoBVPm
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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