David Hearn, a three-time US Olympian and canoeist, has been indicted by a grand jury in Washington DC after Donald Trump blamed vandals for damaging Washington’s reflecting pool after a $14.7m renovation project.
The indictment accuses Hearn of “maliciously” breaking or destroying lining material on the bottom of the reflecting pool on 19 June. Lawyers for Hearn denied the allegations following his arrest, accusing the Trump administration of treating ordinary conduct as criminal.
The US president ordered a vast renovation to turn the site “American flag blue” in time for the country’s 250th birthday celebrations this weekend. Only days after its completion, however, an algae bloom turned the water green.
Trump has alleged that a 300ft “gash” was cut through the sealant installed by contractors during the renovation. While the president claimed the US federal government would make public photographs and video to substantiate his claims, no such evidence has yet been released.
Hearn was arrested last month on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property, after noticing a partly detached piece of the blue liner and reaching into the water to see what it felt like.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn, who had been cycling, told the Washington Post the following day. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
At the time of his arrest, Hearn had just finished a 52-mile bike ride when he visited the Lincoln Memorial to see the refurbished reflecting pool.
The pool, built in 1922, runs more than 2,000ft between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Martin Luther King Jr delivered his I Have a Dream speech in front of the reflecting pool in 1963.
Trump had previously claimed the renovation he ordered of the site would be far more successful than those which took place under other presidents. His administration awarded a no-bid contract to a company Trump said had previously done work on swimming pools at one of his golf clubs.
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