{"id":839248,"date":"2026-08-01T00:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:19:09","slug":"justice-dept-admits-reflecting-pool-renovation-was-flawed-drops-case-against-former-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839248\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Dept. admits Reflecting Pool renovation was flawed, drops case against former Olympian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9h472j001v28qkepjcgmav@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The Justice Department is admitting that President Donald Trump\u2019s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was \u201chasty and botched,\u201d and it is dropping the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/09\/politics\/david-hearn-olympic-not-guilty-reflecting-pool\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn<\/a> that accused him of damaging the pool.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9h4y2y00023b6rlxtu9god@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro\u2019s office wrote in a new court filing Friday, \u201cIt was not until after the return of the indictment [of Hearn], that the [Department of Interior] provided additional documents to the [US Attorney\u2019s Office in 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, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9hf68o000h3b6ro6809gnd@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Hearn\u2019s attorneys said in a statement reacting to the decision, \u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s case against David Hearn should never have been brought. Its dismissal today does 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\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9hm25a000t3b6r5zg4im64@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            When CNN called the contracting company Friday evening, an employee with Atlantic Industrial Coatings said they hadn\u2019t heard anything about the new filing, adding, \u201cNo comment.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9in25q001q3b6rtobuazbk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            CNN has reached out to the White House and the Interior Department for comment.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read the Justice Department&#8217;s motion to dismiss the case against former Olympian David Hearn<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cms9h472j001w28qkge9oan0i@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            This is a developing story and will be updated.\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Justice Department is admitting that President Donald Trump\u2019s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-839248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}