Trump’s claims of vandalism come following the US President’s failed £11 million (USD$14.7 million) renovation project of the pool, which has been widely documented as a disaster
Three-time US Olympian David Hearn has been indicted by a grand jury in Washington DC in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s claims vandals had damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump’s claims of vandalism come following the US President’s failed £11 million (USD$14.7 million) renovation project of the pool, which has been widely documented as a disaster. Trump had insisted on painting the bottom of the Reflecting Pool “American Flag Blue”, but within days of its renovation, algae blooms turned the water green. Then the bottom of the reflecting pool began coming off in strips, with some speculating the hydrogen peroxide – which is a common paint stripper – as the cause, after it was dumped into the pool by National Park Service workers to combat the algae. Trump, however, insisted the damaged paint was the work of vandals, with the Washington DC indictment accusing Hearn, 67, of “maliciously” breaking or destroying lining material on the bottom of the reflecting pool on June 19.
Prosecutors alleged Hearn caused more than £749 ($USD1,000) worth of damage after pulling up the pool’s bottom liner before refusing to stop when challenged. Hearn could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Jeanine Pirro, the lawyer acting on behalf of Washington DC, announced the single felony charge against the three-time Olympian at a press conference on Thursday (July 2). Pirro claimed prosecutors had “tremendous evidence” that the Olympian had “forcefully and violently” pulled up and removed the bottom-liner in the reflecting pool. She accused Hearn of being “belligerent” and “disrespectful” when he was asked to stop by employees of the National Park Service. “Today is about accountability for damaging a national resource, a national treasure,” she said. Lawyers representing Hearn, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, denied the allegations following his arrest, accusing the Trump administration of treating ordinary conduct as criminal. “These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,” they said. “On the eve of our nation’s Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
Mr Hearn previously told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool to examine the peeling coating, briefly touching a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool. He said he let go after a park worker told him to do so. He said he stopped by the pool during a 102-kilometre bike ride but was instead detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released.
He also denied deliberately damaging the pool when speaking to the Washington Post following his arrest. He said: “I didn’t vandalise anything. I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realised what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
The charge against the US sportsman comes after Trump took to social media in June to attack the “vandals” he claims are responsible for damaging the pool. Using his preferred social channel, his own Truth Social, that federal authorities had made “multiple arrests” of people he claim were vandalising the Reflecting Pool.
Trump wrote online: “Many additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool. “What they have damaged does not even include the earlier killing of a large amount of grass which was, by far, the least of it. They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.”
The 47th US President also attacked a reporter amid the Reflecting Pool debacle, accusing “lightweight ABC Reporter Jonathan Karl” of sticking his hand in the pool and trying to rub the rubber off the surface. His comments come after Karl reported for ABC News that he and his team found the Reflecting Pool filled with gunk and green algae. Karl added that the multi-million dollar paint job also appeared to be falling apart. This flies in the face of claims made by Trump at the time, who bragged the renovation was “very complex, but powerful”. The Reflecting Pool has plagued previous US administrations, as algae buildup has frequently prevented the water from properly reflecting the memorial as designed.