A former Olympic canoeist who had been arrested in June on charges that he had vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been indicted, according to court documents. He is charged with \u201cdestruction of property $1,000 or more,\u201d a felony.<\/p>\n
President Trump blamed vandals for the problems following a quick and costly makeover of the pool, and the canoeist, David Carter Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Md., was among the first to be charged. The U.S. Park Police had arrested Mr. Hearn near the pool on June 19, and accused him of destroying government property. <\/p>\n
Past administrations have wrestled with leaks and algae in the pool, but experts said the recent problems could have been caused by the pool\u2019s hasty makeover. President Trump has blamed vandals, who he said \u2014 without offering evidence \u2014 had poured fertilizer into the water to nurture the algae and slashed the coating of blue liner on the pool\u2019s bottom. <\/p>\n
Mr. Hearn was not charged with doing either of those things. He is accused of pulling up a piece of the liner after the liner had already started to peel. The Park Service has provided photos of blade cuts in a different part of the repair work \u2014 strips of caulking, separate from the blue lining \u2014 but has not provided evidence that these cuts were caused by vandalism.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said in a news briefing that prosecutors had \u201ctremendous evidence\u201d underpinning the indictment, and she condemned what she called \u201cunchecked vandalism and civil disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNational Park Service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands,\u201d she said. \u201cAccording to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately two square feet of sealant from the bottom of the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a parks employee told him to stop, Ms. Pirro said, Mr. Hearn was \u201cbelligerent, rude and disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, lawyers representing Mr. Hearn, said in a statement that he is innocent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,\u201d they said. \u201cThis indictment reflects the administration\u2019s effort to shift blame for their own failures. On the eve of our nation\u2019s Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Hearn has acknowledged<\/a> immersing his hand and touching the peeling sealant during a pause in a bike ride, but he has said that is all he did.<\/p>\n Updated\u00a0<\/p>\n July 2, 2026, 5:27 p.m. ET<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t remove anything,\u201d Mr. Hearn said in an interview last month, adding that he had reached in and felt a loose flap of sealant, as he had seen some news reporters doing.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just a curious, concerned citizen,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess I was there at the wrong place, wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent days, White House officials have tried to paint Mr. Hearn as an extremist. In a statement last week, Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, called him a \u201cderanged individual suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday, Ms. Pirro described the case in the context of Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to refurbish Washington, which she said was undergoing \u201ca renaissance like it has never experienced before, in both safety and in beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, President Trump announced that he would be fixing \u201cthe once beautiful Reflecting Pool.\u201d <\/p>\n The administration awarded no-bid contracts to resurface<\/a> the pool and add a new water-filtration system<\/a> at a cost of $16.4 million, but by mid-June \u2014 days before Mr. Hearn\u2019s arrest \u2014 it was already clear that something was off. <\/p>\n Chunks of sealant, which had been recently applied to the concrete slabs, were spotted floating in the water. And the water was turning a lively shade of green, proof that the algae was still present. <\/p>\n After the president raised the specter of vandalism, security officers quickly surrounded the area, an eternal draw for tourists. Federal officials have said that seven people, including Mr. Hearn, have been arrested on charges of vandalism. <\/p>\n Ms. Pirro said Thursday that her office was reviewing those cases and that some would likely result in misdemeanor charges and others in even lesser violations.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s indictment came at a fraught moment for Ms. Pirro\u2019s office, which has encountered trouble filing \u2014 and sustaining \u2014 charges against Washington residents who have protested Mr. Trump\u2019s anti-crime efforts and immigration policies. <\/p>\n