OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
4:41 PM – Thursday, July 9, 2026
Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after President Donald Trump’s renovation.
The plea was entered in Washington, D.C., Superior Court during a hearing on Thursday.
In late June, Hearn, 67, was arrested by U.S. Park Police near the pool on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.
Hearn was indicted by a grand jury days later on one count of destruction of property of more than $1,000, which could land him a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted.
He is accused of ripping about two square feet of the sealant at the bottom of the pool on June 19th.
“National Parks service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands,” said United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro while announcing the indictment.
Pirro said she had been to the pool and seen a “tremendous amount of damage.”
On Thursday, she stated, “The law applies equally to everyone, and when it is broken, there are consequences.”
Hearn’s legal representatives believe he will avoid jail time.
“The government’s evidence is weak,” Attorney Mary Dohrmann said at Thursday’s hearing, calling Hearn an “upstanding citizen and member of the community.”
“Every American should be alarmed about this prosecution,” defense attorney Norm Eisen said after the hearing. “It is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool.”
At the time of the former athlete’s arrest, he said he had only reached into the pool to touch a bit of the liner that had peeled up and was floating in the water.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told The Washington Post. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
In a statement, the lawyers argued that the charges against the former Olympian were based on a “concocted narrative.”
“This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures,” they said. “The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover.”
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