Overview
- Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the felony indictment of David Hearn after Interior Department records and inspections showed widespread liner failures that undercut the theory that a single person vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
- In a July 31 court filing prosecutors said the new records point to a flawed installation by the contractor, citing overspray, delamination near expansion joints, higher water temperatures and algae growth as contributors to liner breakdown.
- Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist who pleaded not guilty to the charges filed earlier this summer, is seeking a dismissal with prejudice and access to records about how the prosecution began, with a court hearing scheduled for September.
- President Trump publicly rebuked U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and urged her to revisit the decision, and multiple accounts say he confronted her privately, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum objected to language in the prosecutors’ filing that he said blamed his department.
- The reversal is likely to trigger congressional oversight, civil preservation suits and reviews of the no-bid, accelerated contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and it leaves questions about contractor accountability and agency disclosure practices.