Trump denounces Justice Department decision to drop Reflecting Pool charges

United States President Donald Trump has criticised his own Department of Justice after it decided to drop criminal charges against a former Olympic athlete for the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.

Trump voiced his opposition to the decision on Saturday, a day after US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced she was dismissing the charges against 67-year-old competitive canoeist David Hearn.

Pirro said the damage was the result of "a botched installation and not vandalism", contradicting both her own previous statements and claims made following Hearn's June 19 arrest.

On Saturday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social page that he disagreed "100 percent" with Pirro, although he did not directly reference Hearn. Instead, he maintained that vandalism had been committed at the Reflecting Pool. "To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," Trump wrote. "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"

Trump repeatedly blamed the situation on "vandals". The announcement of at least seven arrests connected to the pool sparked accusations of political scapegoating.

Hearn, who represented the US three times at the Olympics, emerged as the most high-profile case. The athlete said he was bicycling past the Reflecting Pool when he stopped, reached in and felt the peeling sealant. He has denied committing any vandalism, with his lawyers calling his arrest an attempt to distract from the shoddy renovation work.

Pirro, a former Fox News host and Trump loyalist, had initially accused Hearn of "forcefully and violently" ripping the pool's liner, decrying his actions as "an affront to the dignity of our shared history".

Pirro struck a far different tone in her filing on Friday. She claimed she had received new information, leading her to dramatically pivot. "It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the [Department of Interior] provided additional documents to the [US Attorney's Office for Washington, DC] indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor," Pirro wrote. The Department of the Interior's documents, she continued, showed "that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism". Pirro further blamed the damage on pressure to finish the project by July 4, a date that coincides with US Independence Day and the country's 250th anniversary. "The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed," Pirro wrote.