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Federal prosecutors on Friday asked a judge to dismiss an indictment charging former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn with ripping up the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, citing new information that the damage was caused by a “botched installation” by a contractor, not vandalism. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. had charged Hearn with felony destruction of government property, accusing him of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the sealant that was recently installed at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. The project to renovate the pool was championed by President Trump.

On Friday, prosecutors cited new information that the damage was caused by a “botched installation” by a contractor, not vandalism.

President Trump criticized the decision on Saturday afternoon, saying on Truth Social that there “may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” 

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,’ Mr. Trump wrote. I don’t know what she was thinking?”

Attorneys for Hearn — who strongly denied the vandalism allegations — said in a statement Friday that the government “owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”

“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” attorneys Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin said. “Its dismissal today 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 U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. WTX US News has reached out to the Justice Department, the contractor that installed the sealant and the Department of the Interior, which managed the project.

The decision to drop the case against Hearn marks a significant backtrack for federal prosecutors. Shortly after the new “American Flag Blue” sealant was installed at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool at the president’s direction, passersby began to notice chunks of the material were peeling off the bottom of the pool and an algae bloom had turned the water green. 

Mr. Trump frequently insisted the peeling was caused by vandals, not problems with the more than $10 million project. “Who would do such a thing?” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on June 20 that also mentioned several arrests.

Hearn, a 67-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland, said he was arrested and held for several hours. 

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro later unveiled an indictment against Hearn, accusing him of damaging “a national treasure.” Pirro accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands,” and he was told to stop by a National Park Service employee, drawing an angry response from Hearn.

Hearn denied any wrongdoing. Shortly after his arrest, he told The Associated Press he touched a chunk of pool liner that was still attached, but let go after a worker told him to stop.

“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said at the time. 

In Friday’s court filing, prosecutors conceded the damage was actually “the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

Prosecutors said they did not become aware of those issues until two weeks ago, when they visited the site and “immediately noted extensive damage throughout the now-drained pool,” leading them to request more information from the Department of the Interior. Before then, they said, the department hadn’t shared information indicating the damage was “caused by anything other than the actions of the defendant and other vandals who damaged the pool’s lining.”

Citing internal documents provided by the Department of the Interior, the court filing describes a frenetic process to install the sealant, with frequent setbacks due to poor weather and reports of damage that emerged while the material was still being applied. 

One particularly tricky part of the process was the installation of sealant around the “expansion joints,” or gaps in the pool’s concrete bed to allow it to shift, according to Friday’s court filing. Prosecutors said the peeling that was referenced in Hearn’s case was caused by sealant that was sprayed around those joints.

A National Park Service employee noticed the sealant was peeling and sent an email to colleagues just days after the pool was refilled, more than a week before Hearn was arrested and on the same day as fencing was removed.

The pool was drained for repairs earlier this month, which Mr. Trump said was necessary “to fix the scars and damage that was done by the Vandals.” Hearn’s lawyers argued that move effectively spoiled the evidence that is being used to prosecute Hearn, leading a judge to warn that the government was “operating at its own peril,” according to The Washington Post.

Mr. Trump took a personal interest in overhauling the Reflecting Pool, which was first built in the 1920s and has long struggled with leaks, faulty filtration systems and perennial algae blooms that prior renovation projects failed to fix. The president told reporters in April he was disturbed by the pool’s “terrible” condition.

The government awarded no-bid contracts to a pair of companies: Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was responsible for applying a sealant in the “American Flag Blue” color selected by Mr. Trump, and Green Water Solutions, a company owned by a Trump donor that makes water filtration systems.

It’s one of several renovation projects in and around Washington, D.C., that have drawn Mr. Trump’s interest. The president has also sought to replace the East Wing of the White House with a ballroom, build a gigantic triumphal arch across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, overhaul the Kennedy Center and renovate Dulles International Airport.

President Trump delivered an ultimatum to Sens. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn on Saturday, telling them to stop stalling on confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general or he would push again to make his “anti-weaponization fund” a reality.

Tillis and Cornyn have refused to vote for Blanche as the full-time attorney general unless it is put in writing that Mr. Trump will no longer pursue the “anti-weaponization fund,” a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim they were politically persecuted, which was announced in May as part of a settlement to resolve Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Trump not only said the “anti-weaponization fund” was off the table, but he would keep Blanche in the acting AG role and push to pass the fund if the two senators who oppose it don’t vote for Blanche.

“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill, which takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the Crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma!) Administration (I get nothing, although I was treated horribly!), PASSED,” the president wrote Saturday morning on Truth Social. 

He added, “Todd Blanche was a voice of reason! It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done.”

Tillis responded to the ultimatum Saturday.

“Despite comments as late as yesterday that the fund is dead, President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against,” Tillis posted on X.

“It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday,” he added.

Mr. Trump lamented the supposed end of the fund during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Saturday.

“Well, it is dead, but you know, I wish it weren’t,” Mr. Trump said. “To be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused … and I’d like to see them compensated for the the pain. They lost their families. They committed suicide.”

He continued, “People that were very successful that wanted to go to a rally or an event, and ended up spending the rest of their lives in horror. So, I mean, you can say what you want about the fund, and they’ve agreed to not have a fund. But there are a lot of people that are very upset about it.”

At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Blanche reiterated the fund was “dead.” Cornyn noted the settlement states any changes to it must be agreed upon in writing by all parties involved. 

“Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?” he asked.

“No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche responded. “There’s no modification. It never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account.” 

After delaying a vote last week on Blanche’s nomination due to Cornyn and Tillis, the Senate Judiciary Committee said Saturday it would now be voting this Tuesday at 9 a.m.

“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” the committee said in a statement announcing the vote. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.” 

The “anti-weaponization fund” was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in May to allow her time to consider whether to grant longer-term relief for those suing about the fund, which included two plaintiffs represented by Democracy Forward.

“This is a victory for transparency, the rule of law, and the American people,” Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement at the time. “No administration has the authority to spend public money through a political rewards program that Congress never authorized.”

The Justice Department would confirm in June through court filings that the fund was not going forward and thus the lawsuits should be rendered moot. Democrats, who’ve called it a “slush fund,” and many Republicans opposed the announcement by Mr. Trump, so it might be a tough road to approve the fund even if Cornyn and Tillis do not relent to the president’s ultimatum.

The Senate will go on its summer recess at the end of next week. It will not return until mid-September.