Trump admin case against Olympic canoeist for Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism collapses after evidence destroyed

Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Against Olympic Canoeist Collapses

The Trump administration's case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn — accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — is unraveling.

Following the draining of the Reflecting Pool last week, Hearn filed a motion to dismiss the federal indictment against him. His attorneys argue that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia failed to preserve the physical evidence: the pool lining that Hearn is accused of damaging.

According to the motion, Hearn's legal team made a written request for prosecutors to preserve the evidence. However, the pool has been drained more than once since his arrest, and large sections of the liner are now missing.

The case against Hearn has faced scrutiny from the outset. Other individuals have observed sections of the pool's paint and liner — applied on President Trump's orders — coming apart and peeling on their own. Hearn is accused of "forcefully and violently" tearing two square feet of the pool's newly added blue paint. He maintains he merely touched an already peeling piece of paint.

President Trump has blamed vandalism for the pool's deterioration. However, the addition of hydrogen peroxide to the water in an unsuccessful attempt to kill algae likely caused the paint and liner to peel away.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean rebuffed the government's attempt to bar Hearn from the pool earlier this month, effectively acknowledging the case's weakness.

Meanwhile, the White House has enlisted the FBI to bolster the case. However, with the pool repeatedly drained, new evidence is unlikely — and taxpayer costs continue to mount. Over $14 million has already been spent on the Reflecting Pool, with costs expected to rise.

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Trump Adds Jefferson Statue to Rose Garden Amid White House Overhaul

President Trump has installed another statue in the Rose Garden as part of his extensive redesign of the White House grounds.

Anonymous sources told The Washington Post that a life-size bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson was added last week. It joins statues of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and a "Freedom's Charge" depiction of the Revolutionary War. The Jefferson statue — sculpted by George Lundeen and showing the former president seated beside the Declaration of Independence — has not yet been officially announced.

The Franklin, Hamilton, and "Freedom's Charge" statues were loaned by conservative activist, billionaire real estate mogul, and Republican donor Harlan Crow. The White House has only stated that the statues come from "generous private American patriots."

Trump reportedly called Lundeen privately to thank him for the new addition. "When you're a farm boy from the middle of Nebraska, it's kind of neat to get a call from the president," said Lundeen, who also built a seven-foot statue of Trump for his West Palm Beach golf club — based on Trump's "fight, fight, fight" moment following his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. "You get a call like that, and you don't know if it is one of your buddies playing a trick on you. If it's a hoax, it's a really good one."

Not everyone shares the president's enthusiasm for the new statuary.

"All told, the statues dating to his second term are of negligible artistic value," Maxwell Anderson, former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, told the Post. "President Trump's embrace of an official classicizing style in art and architecture finds its closest equivalent in authoritarian regimes."