Trump DOJ Drops Charges Against Three More Defendants Accused of Reflecting Pool Vandalism — But One Lost His Job

Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has dropped the charges against the other three defendants accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, joining another indictment it voluntarily dismissed against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn.

This now means that all four cases accusing defendants of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool have been dismissed, reported Fox 5 DC.

The president’s attempts to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have been a months-long source of frustration for him, as the project has been plagued by bright green algae and peeling paint, which Trump and others in his administration have claimed was caused by vandals. These claims were swiftly met with a high level of skepticism by the media and local D.C. residents, but the DOJ made several arrests nonetheless.

One of those arrested was Hearn, who was facing a felony charge for destruction of government property until July 31, when the DOJ dismissed the indictment.

In a motion filed on July 27, Hearn’s attorneys argued that “the Government’s sole grand-jury witness on damages testified that the property was already damaged before Mr. Hearn allegedly touched it; that the same repairs would have been required regardless of Mr. Hearn’s conduct; and that he could not quantify any loss attributable to that conduct.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, admitted in its motion that it had relied on claims from the Department of the Interior that “the damage was caused entirely by vandals, including [Hearn],” but after the indictment, DOI then “provided additional documents” that revealed “the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI.”

Trump has continued to insist the damage was due to vandalism, even falsely claiming there was video evidence of people “cutting it with a box knife.”

In addition to dropping the felony charge against Hearn, Pirro’s office has now moved to dismiss three other misdemeanor cases with similar accusations, CBS News reported.

The other three defendants were Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby, and Cameron Thiers, each accused of destroying government property with a value less than $1,000.

The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment from CBS News, but attorneys for the three defendants did, and had sharp criticism for the attempt to prosecute their clients.

Thiers’ attorney Allen Dale told CBS News that the DOJ had informed him they were no longer pursuing the case against his client by email Sunday evening. Dale said the criminal charges had been a six-week “nightmare” for his client, but he was “happy now that this case has been dismissed,” and was “glad it’s over and wants to put it behind him.”

Jamison Koehler, an attorney representing Dennison-Gibby, issued a statement saying his client “was arrested for a crime any rational person knows she did not commit.”

It had “distressed” his client when “police and prosecutors had no interest in reviewing exculpatory evidence that was offered to them…because this evidence did not fit the narrative the Trump Administration was pushing,” he said.

“Finally, she was petrified when the President of the United States — the most powerful person in the world — singled her out, along with the handful of other people arrested, as a ‘sick person’ who would undoubtedly be facing serious jail time,” Koehler added. “Fortunately, her nightmare is now over.”

Carreno may have had the worst of it. His attorney, David Benowitz, called the case a “tragedy” for his client, telling CBS News in a phone interview that Carreno was fired from his job as a government contractor days after he was arrested, and then had to move out of his home because he could no longer afford his rent.

The federal government “literally fabricated a crime,” Benowitz declared, sharing that he and other lawyers representing the defendants examined the Reflecting Pool site to investigate the alleged “damage” and saw the “flawed seams” and where the liner had “bubbled up.”

“This was the epitome of the politicization of the criminal justice system,” said Benowitz. “It’s just the sort of the gut-wrenching reality of it. The guy just goes down to the Reflecting Pool and walks out with a misdemeanor and is fired from his job.”

According to Benowitz, Carreno “is considering all legal options against the government after the dismissal,” reported CBS News.

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