DOJ Drops Reflecting Pool Case Against Ex-Olympian Hearn
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- DOJ moved Friday to dismiss its criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn, filing a 20-page motion that cited newly received Interior Department documents showing damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool stemmed from a botched contractor installation rather than vandalism.
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's filing blamed the rush to finish the project before America 250 celebrations around Independence Day 2026 and noted a visual inspection found damage throughout the pool — including in the middle, where prosecutors conceded "a vandal would not likely have attempted to peel the lining."
- Hearn's lawyers demanded a government apology, calling the prosecution an "abuse of government power" against "a patriotic American who did nothing wrong," and moved earlier this week for access to grand jury transcripts.
- A National Park Service official testified before the grand jury that the pool already had substantial preexisting damage — leaking more than one million gallons of water per week, with expansion joints past their service life and a rip already in the liner.
- Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, and a three-time Summer Olympian whose best finish was ninth at the 1996 Atlanta Games, had pleaded not guilty to one felony count carrying up to 10 years, with trial set for Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court after he was detained for five hours by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police on June 19.
Why it matters: The dismissal is an embarrassing reversal for a Justice Department that had publicly cast the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark central to President Donald Trump's America 250 renovation push. It vindicates Hearn — detained by National Guard troops and Park Police on June 19 — without the apology his lawyers say the government owes him, while underscoring how thin the evidentiary foundation was given the Park Service's own preexisting-damage findings.
