Continuing to redecorate Washington DC
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The Trump administration has dropped its case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in connection with damage to the Reflecting Pool, acknowledging their allegations against David âDaveyâ Hearn donât hold water.
In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorneyâs Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined âthe evidentiary basis for the indictmentâ against Hearn.
Prosecutors said that after the indictment came down on July 2, the Interior Department provided additional documents to the U.S. Attorneyâs Office âindicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.â
DOJ said it âfirst became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalismâ after reviewing more documents.
âHad [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,â the filing said.
DOJ said when it presented the case to a grand jury, it was ânot in possession of any information from DOI indicating that any damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by anything other than the actions of the defendant and other vandals who damaged the poolâs lining.â
The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, âit is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.â
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Pirro came prepared. No umbrella as far as I can tell...
The top federal prosecutor in the nation's capital carted a box full of evidence to the White House on Monday, in a bid to prove to President Trump that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by shoddy construction and not by vandals, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, a staunch ally of the president, made the case in a sometimes heated private meeting in the Oval Office Monday, hours after Mr. Trump had publicly rebuked her for dropping criminal charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
She was later photographed leaving the White House carting a large white box and other bags, which sources said contained all of the evidence collected from the Interior Department that exculpated Hearn and several others from criminal vandalism.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pirro-box-evidence-trump-reflecting-pool-damage/
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Pirro must have gotten hold of the report and that's why she dropped the charges against the Olympic guy. She dropped the charges on August 4th; report is dated the 6th.
The blue coating applied to the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool this summer failed in at least 85 places because of errors in the renovation, including the premature refilling of the basin before the liner had fully dried, according to an inspection report obtained by The Washington Post.
The Aug. 6 report, commissioned by the contractor that did the work, documents far more damage than has been previously reported. President Donald Trump has generally attributed the damage to vandals, but the report makes no mention of vandalism to the liner and blames the problems on the use of improper materials and a rush to complete the job. The administration wanted the project finished in time for the celebration of the nationâs 250th anniversary.
The 75-page âfailure analysisâ by Atlantic Coating Inspection includes scores of photos documenting the linerâs deficiencies â ranging in severity and including blisters, peeling and cracks â and identifies their likely causes.
tl;dr - The report notes a ton of reasons the paint peeled; none of them involved vandalism. There was also a lot more damage than previously reported. The Delusional One gets the last word:
Last Tuesday, as the repairs were nearing completion, Trump told reporters that the latest fixes would make the pool âas vandal-proof as you can get.â
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