The Dept of Justice in Washington, DC, dropped all charges against David Hearn for damage to the reflecting pool, saying instead that an investigation has led to information the installation was botched during construction.
Obviously, the leftists are taking a victory lap against previous accusations by President Trump that vandalism was the major cause of the algae return.
(VIA NBC) – […] In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined “the evidentiary basis for the indictment” against Hearn.
Prosecutors said that after the indictment, the Interior Department “provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.”
DOJ said they “first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” after reviewing more documents.
The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” (read more)
President Trump disagrees with the DOJ determination of cause.
Anyone would be well advised to avoid a pissing contest with Jeanine Pirro; she will shinny up your leg and chew your face off.
Hearne was indicted by a grand jury in the superior court of D.C. He was obviously guilty of at least attempting to damage the pool,, even if the pool’s construction was already flawed. The attempt is itself a crime. Maybe not a felony but at least she should have pursued a misdemeanor charge.
I suspect some Republicans closeted her and asked her to drop this because they feared a backlash in November.
Donald Trump tried to create the anti-weaponization fund and he was forced to drop it because of Republican opposition. Now we have this. Of course, it shows the utter hypocrisy of the Democrats, who bitterly opposed the fund then but would crucify the Republicans now but nobody expects sincerity from Democrats and with the media on their side hypocrisy never sticks to them.
Still, that’s what I think; Pirro has gone native. Republicans are afraid of this issue because it will be tied to the anti-weaponization fund and they are afraid Democrats will make hay with both.
So once again we see a two-tiered system of justice and Jeanine Pirro, who always pretended to be a lion, mews like a kitten.
There is something about D.C. that rots the brains of so many Republicans, even good Conservatives.
Indeed. The fact alone that a grand jury from D.C. – 97% democrat – saw enough evidence to indict the guy for the listed charges means that clearly the man did something illegal. This appears to be yet another in a long, long, long line of people going unpunished for their crimes for political reasons.
As a contractor myself, I have to call BS on these supposed documents.
Furthermore, did he or did he not pull up the material from the bottome of the pool?
Irrespective of whether the work was performed properly, if said dinglberry did pull up that material up from the bottom of the pool, that is vandalism.
cowards.
Helps to understand that polyurea is the same material used for spray on bed liners, those thick markings you see on roads, industrial floors, and is of course widely used to coat pools. It can fail due to poor surface prep, bad mix, too humid or too hot/cold. May have rushed the surface prep? I wonder if everything was done correctly at install, but trapped ground water from the previous decades of leaking compromised the adhesion after it was sprayed and then filled. Just my 2cents as an Mech E.