The repainted Reflecting Pool, pictured in late July, was drained a second time after the Fourth of July fireworks.

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The federal authorities dropped fees against three more people in connection with injury to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, further weakening President Trump’s argument that it was the work of vandals.

Federal prosecutors dropped the vandalism case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on Friday, abruptly altering course after arguing for months that he had taken a piece of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s new $14 million lining.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. wrote that given newly launched proof from the Department of the Interior, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” Instead, it blamed a “botched installation” by President Trump’s hand-picked contractor.

As of Monday, NPR has confirmed — with legal professionals and court docket filings — that prosecutors subsequently dropped their circumstances against the three people dealing with misdemeanor fees. The equivalent one-page motions did not clarify the federal authorities’s reasoning.

“Anyone who’s read the pleading that was filed in Mr. Hearn’s case would understand exactly why they would have to dismiss against the remainder of those charged,” said G. Allen Dale, an lawyer representing one of the people, Cameron Thiers.

Hearn, a 67-year-old Maryland resident, was the only individual indicted by a grand jury over injury to the reflecting pool, which has become a political flashpoint for the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape Washington, D.C. He pleaded not responsible last month to a single rely of destruction of property inflicting more than $1,000 in injury, sustaining he merely touched a unfastened piece out of curiosity.

“What the cases have in common is that they’re all charged with destroying the reflecting pool, which the federal government has just paid millions and millions of dollars to have painted and restored in some manner,” Dale said. “And from the pleading the government filed, their own experts and even the Department of the Interior have concluded that no one damaged the reflecting pool. It was improperly installed. It was just bad workmanship.”

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro requested for Hearn’s case to be dismissed in a 20-page movement on Friday, which the decide granted. In it, she blamed the Department of the Interior for only not too long ago releasing key proof, after the grand jury proceedings and following “dozens and dozens” of requests by her workplace.

Those paperwork, Pirro wrote, point out that injury was not the end result of vandalism but the “flawed installation by the contractor … and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

Based on the Department of the Interior’s documentation, Pirro said elements including rain, wind and delays in acquiring the sealing product “led to hasty and botched work” that was not corrected before the pool was refilled in early June. Within days, algae turned the water inexperienced and items of the new “American flag blue” lining were seen floating to the floor.

Pieces of blue paint could be seen peeling off from the backside of the pool on June 20, just days after it was refilled.

Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images

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Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump was fast to contradict Pirro on social media, stating, “I don’t know what she was thinking?”

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he posted on Truth Social on Saturday.

The next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pushed back against Pirro’s evaluation of the injury, as nicely as her accusations about his division.

On Sunday, he wrote on X that the Department of the Interior had supplied the U.S. Attorney’s workplace with all the requested proof, as nicely as “expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals.”

Hearn’s case has been a significantly seen referendum on the Trump administration, prompting supportive rallies outside the courtroom and in depth debates on social media. But he wasn’t the only individual arrested over the peeling paint.

President Trump said in late June that “six people have been arrested, and seven people have been cited” for damaging the pool, which had to be drained again after the Fourth of July. Only three of these folks, plus Hearn, have been publicly named in court docket circumstances and media reports.

Misdemeanor fees for three folks dropped

The other people concerned in vandalism circumstances have not spoken out publicly. But, with their circumstances now dismissed, their legal professionals are beginning to paint a image of the toll the last few months have taken.

Attorney Mark Zaid wrote on X that his consumer, Justin Carreno, “lost two jobs due to this frivolous arrest.”

According to court docket filings, Carreno was handcuffed and arrested on June 20 after regulation enforcement saw him “reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint.” He subsequently pleaded not responsible to a single cost of destruction of property less than $1,000. His case was dropped on Friday, court docket data present.

“At minimum, he is entitled to [sic] public apology,” Zaid wrote later that day.

Jamison Koehler advised NPR that his consumer, Dr. Sophie Dennison-Gibby, is a D.C.-area veterinarian who was “worried about wildlife.” She was also arrested on June 20, after officers saw her decide up two small items of the reflecting pool liner that were floating in the pool, according to Koehler. But he said she had picked up litter, too.

“Of course, the government doesn’t mention the fact that in addition to finding the pieces of the reflecting pool in her purse, they also found trash,” he said. “Because the trash didn’t fit with their narrative.”

Dennison-Gibby pleaded not responsible to a single misdemeanor cost. Koehler says witnesses at the scene took video and supplied him with a assertion, but he had an unusually tough time getting in contact with prosecutors to share it.

“I mentioned exculpatory evidence, they had no interest in that,” he said. NPR has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. but did not hear back in time for publication.

Koehler said he was resigned that the case would go to trial, until he was notified on Friday that prosecutors had moved to dismiss it. He said there’s always a chance they could carry the fees back, which makes it dangerous for his consumer to communicate about it. But he said Dennison-Gibby desires folks to know about her expertise, which he called “completely humiliating.”

“She’s been fingerprinted, she’s been photographed,” Koehler said.. “She has a mug shot. She’s in the FBI database. And she’s been formally charged with a criminal offense in D.C. This is the president of the United States talking about her case … saying ‘These people will be punished. These people are going to jail for a long time.’ She’s horrified and petrified.”