President Donald Trump wanted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fixed, and he wanted it blue. Instead, taxpayers got a roughly $15 million repair job that peeled, turned green with algae, and wound up in a criminal case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn. Trump has since admitted the contractor rushed parts of the work, maintaining vandalism caused additional damage. From Reuters:
The DOJ said the latest documents it got from the Department of the Interior "indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool."
Pirro and Spence wrote that "the information subsequently demanded by (U.S. Attorney's Office) and disclosed by DOI — which was not known to the prosecutors or the grand jury before the return of the indictment — strongly suggest that a rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor, led to the damage to the lining of the Reflecting Pool."
The Interior Department and Atlantic Industrial Coatings did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following the initial vandalism charges brought against Hearn and others, Interior officials only "slowly started trickling information" to prosecutors after "dozens and dozens" of requests from the U.S. Attorney's Office, according to Pirro and Spence.
"Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment," they wrote.
The 2,000-foot (600-meter) pool, a centerpiece of Washington's National Mall, had been refurbished with an "American flag blue" liner at Trump's request. The work was hurried in an attempt to get it done in time for events associated with July's 250th anniversary celebration of U.S. independence, according to the filing.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped the felony case against Hearn after prosecutors received records showing a rushed and flawed installation with repeated failures across the pool.
Trump attacked Pirro for backing away from the prosecution, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum continued defending the vandalism claim.
Pirro’s office dropped the case against Hearn after concluding that widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool, a landmark on Washington’s National Mall, was the result of flawed contracting work rather than intentional destruction, as Trump has repeatedly alleged.
The discussions, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, are an indication that the Trump administration could seek to revive those cases and are another example of the White House intervening in criminal investigations, in a sharp break from decades-long Justice Department practice.
Lawyers for Hearn said new charges would “add another bizarre turn to a sad chapter in the DOJ's history and further harass an innocent man."
The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A local Washington, D.C., judge has dismissed the case against Hearn and is set to decide in the coming weeks whether to give prosecutors the opportunity to seek new charges or permanently end the prosecution.
The most recent conversations involved the Criminal Division at Justice Department headquarters, which typically manages complex cases on corporate fraud, international gangs and other issues, rather than Pirro's office, whose remit includes local criminal cases in Washington, according to the two people familiar with the matter. One of the people said the talks were aimed at exploring whether there was a basis to bring a misdemeanor case.
The conversations are preliminary and no final decision has been made.
I'm a yuge fan of the president, but Trump deserves a little criticism here; when evidence weakens your case, pounding the table harder doesn't strengthen it.
Still, something else has happened to the Reflecting Pool. A government repair failure has become a sprawling indictment of Trump, his presidency, his personality, federal employment, park exhibits, the White House ballroom, and apparently the future integrity of the National Park Service itself.
From U.S. News & World Report:
The beloved federal agency, its iconic park rangers and other employees have been navigating a new reality under Trump, from orders to revise exhibits at parks and other sites to the demolition of important structures under its stewardship, such as the White House’s East Wing, to arresting visitors for alleged vandalism at the pool.
Critics say the monthslong Reflecting Pool saga and other demands by Trump risk undermining the integrity of a federal agency that has long been held in high esteem by the American public.
“Never — not once in decades — have I witnessed such systematic degradation, disrespect and dismantling of the National Park Service as I see today under the thumb of President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” said Bill Wade, a former park ranger and superintendent.
Wade, who now serves as executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, wrote an op-ed for The Denver Post lamenting what he called the Trump administration's “assault on the people, the mission and the values that have made the National Park Service one of America’s most valued institutions.”
The park service has been at the center of some of Trump's most contentious actions during his second term. An executive order targeted funding and demanded reviews at national parks and other sites that Trump said advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” resulting in changes to some exhibits on slavery or climate change.
The president has also ordered sweeping changes to historical monuments and buildings in Washington that fall under NPS' purview, including the creation of a White House ballroom and a 250-foot-tall (76-meter-tall) memorial arch. The agency meanwhile has lost at least one-quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump began his second term, through layoffs, forced retirements and resignations.
A bad coating job suddenly carries the weight of the republic. For much of the political left, "Orange Man Bad" has become muscle memory.
Lost in the drama is a stubborn fact: the Reflecting Pool had serious problems long before Trump ordered it painted blue. By 2012, the federal government had spent $34 million reconstructing a pool that had sunk into marshland, cracked, leaked, and lost an estimated 500,000 gallons of water each week through leaks and evaporation.
The rebuilt pool received a new circulation system and more than 2,100 timber pilings. Algae returned within weeks.
Trump didn't invent the pool's maintenance difficulties. He did make himself impossible to separate from the latest repair. His instinct to put his fingerprints on Washington almost guarantees a fight; every so often he appears to enjoy the reaction as much as the project.
The Kennedy Center offers the latest example. Its board voted Thursday to place an inscription reading "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump" on the building after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had ruled that the board couldn't rename the center without Congress.
From Axios:
Why it matters: The move challenges a federal judge's ruling back in May that only Congress could change the name of the performing arts venue, and that Trump's name must be removed. That process was completed in June.
- U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that the board had "overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming" the center after the president.
- The administration has appealed the ruling.
Zoom in: Thursday's vote won't make Trump's name part of the complex. Instead, an inscription will go below the Kennedy Center sign that reads "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump," and the physical site will be renamed "the President Donald J. Trump Plaza."
- The decision is likely meant to circumvent both the judge's ruling and a federal law that oversees the Kennedy Center, which reads in part, "no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas."
- "This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court's ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed. I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument," Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) said in a statement.
- Beatty sits on the board as an ex officio member and previously sued the administration to halt the addition of Trump's name to the Kennedy Center.
Zoom out: The board also voted Thursday to move forward with a two-year closure of the center's main venue for renovations, despite Cooper temporarily blocking plans to shut it down.
- "Under President Trump's bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world," White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Axios.
Trump keeps provoking his opponents, and they keep reacting exactly as expected. A president pushing too hard for his preferred result is worth covering. So are a faulty contract, wasted money, weak evidence, and an accused man facing felony charges.
Those facts can stand without turning every Park Service dispute into another warning that Trump is destroying an American institution.
The National Park Service's reputation won't collapse because a contractor botched a coating job. Its employees will keep preserving battlefields, monuments, trails, historic homes, and national parks long after the blue coating is repaired again.
The strangest obsession belongs to Washington's political class. The Reflecting Pool needed competent work and honest accountability. It got Trump's impatience, contractor failure, and another round of national hysteria over Donald Trump.
Trump should learn something from this mess, and so should his critics.
Judging by Washington lately, I wouldn't bet the landscaping budget on either one.
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