{"id":513238,"date":"2026-07-03T20:23:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/former-olympian-accused-of-vandalizing-washingtons-renovated-reflecting-pool\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T20:23:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:23:46","slug":"former-olympian-accused-of-vandalizing-washingtons-renovated-reflecting-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/sports\/former-olympian-accused-of-vandalizing-washingtons-renovated-reflecting-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Olympian accused of vandalizing Washington’s renovated Reflecting Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Olympic canoeist David Hearn<\/strong> has been indicted this Thursday by a federal grand jury<\/strong> on a felony charge for allegedly vandalizing the Washington National Mall Reflecting Pool<\/strong>, recently remodeled by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro reported in a press conference that Hearn, 67, is accused of tearing off a piece of sealant material<\/strong> from the bottom of the pond last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pond was renovated by orders of President Donald Trump,<\/strong> who presented it as one of his main city beautification<\/strong> projects for the country’s 250th anniversary of independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The renovation, valued at 16 million dollars, consisted of emptying the facility, installing a new dark blue lining<\/strong>, and updating algae control. But it has not shown the expected results, pushing the American leader to blame acts of vandalism rather than problems with the remodeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once remodeled, it was inaugurated at the beginning of June and quickly began to suffer from the appearance of algae,<\/strong> a recurring problem that has affected this large artificial pond, the longest in the United States, since it was inaugurated in 1922.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recommend reading:Banco Popular sponsors the photographic exhibition Marileidy: images of a champion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the dark blue lining that Trump chose<\/strong> for the bottom of the pond appeared cracked. On June 22, Trump attributed these events to “vandalism,” which was criticized by opponents of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump claims that the alleged “saboteurs” cut the pond liner right after the inauguration, or poured fertilizer into the water.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearn has denied causing damage to the reflecting pool<\/strong> and says he simply touched a loose piece of the blue lining that was peeling off “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen,” while out for a bike ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Prosecutor Pirro has pointed out that National Park Service employees saw the canoeist removing the lining from the bottom of the pond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accusation comes after the arrest or summons of several people<\/strong> in connection with the alleged damage suffered by the Reflecting Pool.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Hearn’s lawyers issued a statement cited by CBS in which they claim that their client is innocent and that the “formal indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for its own failures”.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy over the work moved to social media, where there are videos that supposedly show people putting their hands into the pond<\/strong>, now fenced off for the independence events scheduled for this Saturday, July 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympic canoeist David Hearn has been indicted this Thursday by a federal grand jury on a felony charge for allegedly vandalizing the Washington National Mall Reflecting Pool, recently remodeled by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to authorities. Federal Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro reported in a press conference that Hearn, 67, is accused of tearing off a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133556,"featured_media":513239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44332,44333],"class_list":["post-513238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-david-hearn","tag-olympic"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-29w2","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/17830965684004.webp","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yerandi Santana","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-13-at-5.35.07-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Sports"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/17830965684004.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}