{"id":24407,"date":"2026-08-01T18:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24407"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:18:26","slug":"jeanine-pirro-will-drop-reflecting-pool-vandalism-charges-against-ex-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24407","title":{"rendered":"Jeanine Pirro Will Drop Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges Against Ex-Olympian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tContradicting claims made repeatedly by President <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" id=\"auto-tag_donald-trump\" data-tag=\"donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>, U.S. attorney <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/jeanine-pirro\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jeanine-pirro\" data-tag=\"jeanine-pirro\">Jeanine Pirro<\/a> now says she will seek to dismiss a felony charge against former Olympic canoeist <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/david-hearn\/\" id=\"auto-tag_david-hearn\" data-tag=\"david-hearn\">David Hearn<\/a> who had been accused of ripping up a small square piece of new blue lining from the renovated Lincoln Memorial <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/reflecting-pool\/\" id=\"auto-tag_reflecting-pool\" data-tag=\"reflecting-pool\">Reflecting Pool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn a motion filed Friday evening, federal prosecutors conceded that damage to the pool was \u201cthe result of a botched installation and not vandalism.\u201d In the build-up to the Trump-renovated pool\u2019s intended July 4 unveiling, the new blue lining began peeling as the water turned green with algae bloom \u2013 the very problem the Trump-ordered restoration project was to have fixed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tJust last month following Hearn\u2019s indictment on July 2, Pirro stated that prosecutors had \u201ctremendous evidence\u201d of Hearn\u2019s guilt and that he faced up to 10 years in prison. Hearn has consistently denied the accusations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tYesterday, 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 \u201cwidespread damage\u201d 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\u2019s completion. Pirro said the Department had insisted that \u201cnearly all of the damage\u201d had been the work of vandals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPirro\u2019s 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 \u201cto complete the [renovation] project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.\u201d Trump had repeatedly said the newly blue pool would be unveiled before the July 4 celebration.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cGiven all of this newly discovered information,\u201d Pirro writes, \u201cit is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOf 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOn Friday, lawyers representing Hearn said in a statement that the dismissal of charges \u201cdoes not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government\u2019s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pool.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}