Prosecutors drop more Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism cases

Federal prosecutors dropped the last of their cases against people charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in DC had filed charges of vandalism in connection with damage to the iconic DC pond against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers. President Donald Trump had previously described the supposed pool-damaging culprits as "SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE."

The office for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, however, decided to drop the cases against all four people after concluding that contractors, not vandals, were to blame for the pool’s deteriorated state. Court records obtained by USA TODAY show that prosecutors filed paperwork to drop all of the cases on July 31.

USA TODAY has reached out to Pirro for comment.

What has Trump said?

The move to drop the last of the Reflecting Pool cases comes after Trump has repeatedly alleged the pool was vandalized.

"To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," the president said as late as Saturday, Aug. 1, in a statement on an official Trump social media account. "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"

Trump said Pirro "choked" after her office dropped its case against Hearn, an Olympic canoeist. 

"I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro," Trump told reporters Aug. 3 in the Oval Office. "She folded like an umbrella."

The White House did not immediately respond to USA TODAY requests for comment on the latest moves from Pirro’s office. 

Singled out by 'the most powerful person in the world'

Attorneys for the people accused of vandalizing the DC pool celebrated the decision by prosecutors to drop charges. But they also described the experience as harrowing for clients who were surprised to find themselves the objects of President Trump’s ire. 

"She’s relieved, but this was a horrible experience for her," Dennison-Gibby’s attorney, Jamison Koehler, told USA TODAY, describing the moment of her being arrested and loaded into a van as "humiliating."

Dennison-Gibby "was then terrified to learn a couple of days later that the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, had said that she and others charged were sick people who faced jail time," Koehler said. "Can you imagine being singled out by the president?"

According to Koehler, the arrest occurred when Dennison-Gibby was walking by the pool and stopped to remove a piece of plastic from the water, which happened to be part of the lining. Dennison-Gibby, a Washington-area veterinarian, regularly picked up trash that was hazardous to animals on her walks, Koehler said.

Attorneys for the others charged described the experience in similar terms. Carreno’s attorney, Mark S. Zaid, said in a social media post that his client lost two jobs "due to this frivolous arrest."

"At minimum, he is entitled to a public apology," Zaid said of Carreno.

Thiers' attorney Allen Dale called the experience a "nightmare" for his client.

"He is very relieved that this nightmare is behind him," Dale said.

What happened to the Reflecting Pool?

The president started making accusations of vandalism regarding the Reflecting Pool earlier in the summer when the White House was in the midst of revamping the DC landmark for America 250 celebrations. 

Shortly after renovations, the lining began to peel and the water turned green. Trump blamed the pool’s deterioration on nefarious actors. 

According to Pirro’s office, a rushed renovation by the Trump administration's hand-picked contractor is to blame. 

The Reflecting Pool suffered from a "flawed installation by the contractor... and the rush to complete the project before events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026," according to Pirro's office. 

Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers