Jeanine Pirro Will Drop Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges Against Ex-Olympian

Contradicting claims made repeatedly by President Donald Trump, U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro now says she will seek to dismiss a felony charge against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn who had been accused of ripping up a small square piece of new blue lining from the renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

In a motion filed Friday evening, federal prosecutors conceded that damage to the pool was “the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.” In the build-up to the Trump-renovated pool’s intended July 4 unveiling, the new blue lining began peeling as the water turned green with algae bloom – the very problem the Trump-ordered restoration project was to have fixed.

Just last month following Hearn’s indictment on July 2, Pirro stated that prosecutors had “tremendous evidence” of Hearn’s guilt and that he faced up to 10 years in prison. Hearn has consistently denied the accusations.

Yesterday, federal prosecutors blamed the contractors hired by the the Interior Department on a no-bid contract for the mess, saying that the renovation itself had caused “widespread damage” to the lining. Pirro now accuses he Interior Department of misleading prosecutors on key facts, including that the Department withheld evidence that the lining had begun to peel within two days of the project’s completion. Pirro said the Department had insisted that “nearly all of the damage” had been the work of vandals.

Pirro’s new stance on the matter marks a significant break from her usual lockstep siding with Trump. The former Fox News on-air personality said in her motion last night that contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings rushed “to complete the [renovation] project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.” Trump had repeatedly said the newly blue pool would be unveiled before the July 4 celebration.

“Given all of this newly discovered information,” Pirro writes, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism.”

Of the seven people that had been arrested on vandalism charges in connection to the pool, only Hearn was charged with felony destruction of property. A trial was supposed to have started September 28.

On Friday, lawyers representing Hearn said in a statement that the dismissal of charges “does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”