The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool damage blamed on contractor error, not vandalism, according to a federal filing that led prosecutors to drop all charges against four people accused of damaging the iconic Washington, DC landmark. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for DC concluded that flawed installation by Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based contractor hired to renovate the pool, caused the deterioration that appeared shortly after work wrapped in June 2026.
Federal prosecutors filed paperwork to dismiss all cases on July 31, 2026, against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby, and Cameron Thiers, who had been charged with vandalism. The office said the damage to the pool—peeling lining and discolored water—resulted from the contractor’s rushed and flawed work, not criminal acts.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings received a no-bid contract worth approximately $14 million to paint and renovate the historic 2,030-foot pool as part of America 250 celebrations scheduled for early July. According to prosecutors, the rush to complete the project before Independence Day events and the America 250 commemoration led to installation problems that caused the lining to fail.
The contractor’s work began in May 2026. Within weeks of completion, the pool’s new polyurea lining began to peel, the water turned green, and visible tears and bubbles appeared across the surface. Trump administration officials initially blamed vandals for the damage, and the Justice Department charged four people who happened to touch or remove debris from the pool.
Sophie Dennison-Gibby, a Washington-area veterinarian, was arrested after removing what she thought was plastic trash from the water—part of the failing lining. Her attorney, Jamison Koehler, described the arrest as humiliating and said she was terrified when she learned that President Trump had called the accused “sick, deranged people” on his social media account. Carreno’s attorney said his client lost two jobs due to the arrest, while another defendant’s attorney called the experience a “nightmare.”
President Trump disputed the contractor-error conclusion even after prosecutors dropped the charges. “To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” he said on August 1. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” When told of the dismissals on August 3, Trump said he was disappointed with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, telling reporters she “folded like an umbrella.”
The dropped charges marked a reversal from the Trump administration’s initial response to the pool’s deterioration. The case against Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, was dismissed after prosecutors concluded the damage stemmed from installation flaws rather than intentional harm. The decision highlighted the tension between Trump’s public claims of vandalism and his own Justice Department’s finding that contractor error was to blame.
Sources
- USA TODAY — Prosecutors dropped all vandalism cases against four people, citing flawed contractor installation; Trump’s response and impact on the accused
- KPBS — DOJ filing details on contractor error and rushed installation; Hearn’s case dismissal
- New York Times — Analysis of damage to the pool’s liner showing tears, bubbles, and peeling
- Reuters — Trump’s conflicting statements on vandalism versus contractor error
- NBC News — Trump administration drops case, blaming damage on botched installation
- The Hill — Contract details: April 3 award to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, $13.1 million initial value
- Time — Atlantic Industrial Coatings contract and cost escalation to $14.6 million
