Former Olympian indicted on felony charge in what Trump called Reflecting Pool vandalism

Signage and security fencing warns of explosives along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of July 4th events on the National Mall, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

WASHINGTON —A former Olympian was indicted Thursday on a felony charge in what President Donald Trump has called vandalism of the Reflecting Pool.

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in Washington, D.C. court.

District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than US$1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerent toward an employee who told him to stop.

“This is a case with tremendous evidence,” she said, adding that authorities have made about six other misdemeanors arrests.

In a statement, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at Washington Litigation Group, said that they represented Hearn and that the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”

Hearn didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

He previously told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool June 19 to examine the newly peeled coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to.

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, Md, owned a company that made composite materials used to build watercraft.

Saying that he stopped by the pool during a 64-mile bike ride, Hearn said he was detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released.

Trump said earlier this month that federal authorities made “multiple arrests” of people he accused vandalizing the Reflecting Pool as he struggled to explain why the US$14-million-plus rehabilitation project he launched for the nation’s 250th anniversary seemingly backfired. Without providing any substantiation, he also said vandals dumped fertilizer into the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter.

In subsequent days, National Guard members and U.S. Park Police patrolled the deck around the Reflecting Pool as Trump’s administration faced a self-imposed deadline to fix a botched renovation before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. Contractors and federal workers used chemicals and ozone nanobubbles to combat an algae bloom, and Trump has said that problems most likely require draining the pool again for liner repairs.

Lindsay Whitehurst And Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press

Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.