DOJ admits the Reflecting Pool "vandal" was the contractor
Prosecutors have asked to dismiss Hearn’s felony case without prejudice after their original vandalism account collapsed.
The Trump administration arrested a former Olympian, David Hearn, for touching a loose piece of its janky Reflecting Pool liner, indicted him for felony vandalism, and then announced it had "tremendous evidence" of his wrongdoing. The evidence shows something else: the contractor botched the installation, the DOJ lied.
DOJ has asked a D.C. judge to dismiss the felony indictment against the three-time Olympic canoeist, who said he briefly touched an already detached section of liner during a bike ride. The government now says documents supplied after his indictment show that the liner failed due to flawed installation by Atlantic Industrial Coatings and a rush to finish before America's 250th-anniversary events.
Trump repeatedly blamed vandals for the liner peeling from his "American flag blue" Reflecting Pool. Independent experts had already noted that the failures followed installation seams and were consistent with application problems. The administration insisted there had been no installation mistakes and prosecuted Hearn after he touched one of the loose pieces.
The Justice Department now says the critics were right. The liner was poorly installed, the project was rushed, and Interior did not disclose the relevant documents until after an ordinary citizen had been arrested and indicted.
"Tremendous evidence" lasted until evidence arrived.
This is my surprised that the government lied to us face.
Costs, at least. Not just "oops, we made your life miserable, we reserve the right to do it again, but we really want to avoid judicial oversight of how we got to this point."