The Department of Justice has moved to drop vandalism charges against a former Olympian over damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, according to coverage aired by ABC7NY. The station described the move as a stunning reversal by the department.
The former Olympian is David Hearn, who was originally arrested and charged with vandalism in the case. The charges accused him of damaging the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro had previously been confident in the prosecution. She had said the evidence would show, and that prosecutors would prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
In a Friday filing, the Department of Justice said additional documents provided by the Interior Department show that a botched installation by the contractor caused the damage, and not David Hearn, the former Olympian who had been arrested and charged.
According to the coverage, federal records show that the company was paid more than $14.6 million through a no-bid contract. The figure pointed to the scale of the contract behind the work at the reflecting pool.
Pirro wrote in a statement that, given all of the newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism, let alone establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt. She is now pointing to the contractor as responsible for the damage.
The president is doubling down on his reflecting pool vandalism claims, according to the report. He said he disagrees 100% with Pirro's decision to drop the charges against the former Olympian, and posted that he did not know what she was thinking.
The reversal marks a sharp turn in a case that had moved from an arrest and confident prosecution to a filing seeking to dismiss the charges, with the DOJ now attributing the damage to the contractor's work rather than to the man it had originally accused.