High-profile reflecting pool prosecution of Olympian shot down for good as 'meritless'

The Justice Department's prosecution of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn came to a permanent end on Thursday, with a dismissal that bars Donald Trump's administration from pursuing the case against him again.

Federal prosecutors moved in July to drop the felony charges accusing Hearn of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, after evidence emerged that the damage actually came from a "rushed, botched paint job" by a contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, racing to finish the work before America 250 celebrations.

Hearn's attorney, Norm Eisen, previously laid out the case for a permanent end to the prosecution at a press conference.

"The damage to the reflecting pool was the result of a rushed, botched installation," Eisen said. "When they've said they don't have evidence now, when they've admitted the cause was otherwise, there can be no continued basis for anyone to look at this case. It should never be brought again. It must never be brought again, and we will not rest until this matter is disposed of, and Mr. Hearn can sleep easy."

Eisen announced the final outcome on X Thursday morning, confirming the case had been dismissed "with prejudice" — meaning prosecutors cannot revive it. "Huge victory for Davey, for us at @DDFund_ & our legal team colleagues Washington Litigation Group and Steptoe-- & for rule of law," he wrote.

The resolution caps a saga that saw a judge repeatedly reject the Trump DOJ's efforts to keep the case alive even as its own evidence crumbled. At a September hearing, Judge Todd Edelman pointedly asked whether holding the door open to recharge Hearn amounted to "a unique threat of meritless re-prosecution," and pressed prosecutors on how to view Trump's public statements as anything other than pressure to revive what the government itself had "decided to be a meritless prosecution." Hearn, who maintained his innocence from the start, had faced the prospect of prison time over damage he didn't cause.