Critics maul Trump after DOJ drops its Reflecting Pool prosecution

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (not pictured) at Trump Turnberry golf club on July 28, 2025 in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain. Christopher Furlong Pool via Reuters

The Trump administration dropped its case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in connection with damage to the Reflecting Pool, late Friday after admitting their allegations against David “Davey” Hearn “don’t hold water,” as NBC reported.

In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined “the evidentiary basis for the indictment” against Hearn.

“Prosecutors said that after the indictment, the Interior Department ‘provided additional documents to the USAO-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,’” NBC reported.

Critics on social media could not wait to pounce.

“Where does Dave Hearn (smeared as a vandal) go to get his reputation back?” demanded Vanity Fair writer Paul Farhi on X.

“There it is ... the Reflecting Pool accusations were just Trump lies,” wailed on heckler on X soon after the report went live.

“Defense should move to sanction the DOJ attorneys who brought this case,” railed another. “Prosecutorial misconduct and an abuse of the grand jury process.”

One reporter described the 20-page Friday court filing as throwing “the Trump Admin's Dept of Interior under the bus.”

Other were too busy mocking the failed prosecution too hard to comment: “lol...the gang that can't shoot straight losing another one,” said one critic on X.

The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

NBC News reports a spokesperson for Pirro said the filing “spoke for itself.”

Her office also moved to dismiss at least one of the other three misdemeanor cases that had been brought in connection with the Reflecting Pool.

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