Federal prosecutors dropped misdemeanor charges against three people accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, days after President Trump said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro had "folded like an umbrella" by dismissing a related felony case.
Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby, and Cameron Thiers each faced accusations of destroying property valued at less than $1,000 at the newly renovated Washington, D.C., landmark. Their cases are now marked "closed" on the D.C. Superior Court's webpage, the Washington Examiner reported. The dismissals came the same week Trump publicly dressed down Pirro for dropping the felony case against a fourth defendant, former Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
The collapse of all four Reflecting Pool prosecutions marks an embarrassing reversal for the Justice Department. Pirro herself had personally announced the felony charges against Hearn in a high-profile press briefing. Now her own office says the evidence points not to vandalism but to shoddy government contracting, and that Interior Department officials sat on critical information while prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment.
Pirro's office moved on Friday to dismiss the felony case against Hearn, a Maryland resident who represented the United States in canoe events at three Summer Olympic Games from 1992 through 2000. Hearn had pleaded not guilty after prosecutors accused him of forcefully ripping portions of the renovated pool floor. He had faced up to ten years in prison.
In a 20-page court filing signed by Pirro, prosecutors said newly received Interior Department documents changed the picture entirely. The filing stated that damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by a "rushed and flawed installation" involving the pool lining, not by deliberate sabotage. AP News reported that the new evidence represented a significant embarrassment for the Justice Department, which had framed the case as accountability for damage at a landmark where Trump had launched a major renovation project ahead of America's 250th anniversary.
Pirro's filing went further. Prosecutors alleged that Interior officials had withheld critical information that was not turned over until after they had already secured Hearn's indictment from a grand jury. That allegation raises a pointed question: how did the government bring a felony case to a grand jury without the evidence that would later unravel it?
Pirro put the conclusion bluntly in the filing, as Just The News reported:
"Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt."
Pirro had previously pledged to prosecute Reflecting Pool vandals in forceful public terms. The reversal amounts to a concession that her own office moved too fast on too little.
The Hearn dismissal triggered an immediate and public rebuke from the president. On Monday, Trump told reporters he was "really disappointed" by Pirro's decision. He said she had "choked" and "folded like an umbrella", though he acknowledged there "may have been some contractor difficulty."
Trump followed up on Truth Social, leaving no ambiguity about his view:
"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro... on the Reflecting Pool. To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM."
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum backed the president's position. In an August 1 post on X, Burgum wrote that "the evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool" and that some acts "were even caught on camera." He added that his agency had provided expert and eyewitness testimony and "every piece of evidence" the U.S. Attorney's office requested. That claim sits awkwardly beside prosecutors' allegation that Interior officials withheld key documents until after the grand jury indictment.
CNN reported Monday that speculation had circulated about whether Trump might remove Pirro from her post over the dismissed case. That same afternoon, Pirro reportedly arrived at the White House carrying a large white box and other bags filled with Interior Department evidence. Sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Tuesday that Pirro used the evidence during a sometimes heated private Oval Office meeting with Trump. As we previously covered, Trump had already publicly rebuked Pirro before that meeting took place.
The White House, asked on Tuesday about the misdemeanor dismissals, referred the Washington Examiner to the president's Oval Office remarks from the previous day. Pirro's office declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.
While the political back-and-forth played out between the president and his own U.S. Attorney, the three misdemeanor defendants lived with real consequences from charges the government now concedes it could not prove.
Carreno, who had worked as a government contractor, was fired because of the case. His attorney told CBS that the government had "literally fabricated a crime." Carreno has since moved homes and is exploring legal options, his lawyer said.
Dennison-Gibby's attorney told USA Today his client was relieved by the dismissal but had previously been "terrified" after Trump publicly referred to the defendants as "sick people who faced jail time." Pirro's approach to law enforcement in Washington has drawn attention on multiple fronts, she has also pushed for tougher curfew enforcement and vowed to charge parents of teens involved in D.C. street violence.
No public statement from Thiers or his attorney appeared in available reporting.
Hearn's lawyers issued a sharper rebuke of the prosecution itself, as Breitbart reported:
"Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government's approach was ready, fire, aim."
Hearn himself told the Washington Post: "I didn't vandalize anything. I didn't destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs."
Hearn was one of seven people originally charged in connection with alleged sabotage of the Reflecting Pool renovation project. All four cases that reached D.C. Superior Court have now been dismissed. The status of the remaining individuals is not clear from available reporting.
Pirro has faced scrutiny from multiple directions during her tenure as D.C.'s top federal prosecutor. Defense lawyers in an unrelated case have demanded she step aside from a separate high-profile prosecution, and legal experts remain divided on her handling of politically sensitive matters.
The bigger question hanging over this episode is not whether Pirro made the right call in dismissing the charges, her own filing says the evidence could not sustain them. The bigger question is why the Interior Department allegedly withheld documents that would have prevented the prosecution from ever reaching a grand jury. Prosecutors accused Interior officials of sitting on critical information. Burgum's office insists it provided everything requested. Someone is not telling the full story, and nobody in a position to answer has answered.
A man lost his job. A woman was left frightened by presidential rhetoric aimed at people the government now admits it could not prove did anything wrong. A former Olympian faced a decade behind bars for damage that prosecutors say a contractor caused. And the agency at the center of the mess, the Interior Department, is pointing fingers at the people it failed to inform.
When the government charges citizens first and checks its own paperwork later, accountability should not stop at a quiet dismissal notice on a court website.