Trump criticizes Pirro in Reflecting Pool case: 'I don’t know what she was thinking?'

The DOJ said damage "was the result of flawed installation by the contractor."

The Justice Department moved to dismiss the criminal case against Olympian David Hearn, who was alleged to have vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool, acknowledging the damage to the pool "was the result of flawed installation by the contractor."

Hearn pleaded not guilty to a felony destruction of property charge earlier this month after the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro accused him of allegedly "forcefully and violently" ripping up parts of the pool floor.

Pirro's office said in a filing Friday seeking to drop the case that it only learned of evidence pointing to "a rushed and flawed installation process" after Hearn had been indicted by a grand jury.

The filing stated Pirro herself visited the Reflecting Pool on July 17 after it had been fully drained and became aware of significant damage throughout the pool area, which spurred the DOJ to request all documents from the U.S. Interior Department about how the pool was lined.

Those documents indicated a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, "with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool" and a rush to complete the renovation project before the America 250 celebration on July 4, according to the filing.

"Because these recently-produced materials significantly undermine the evidentiary basis for the indictment initially supplied by the DOI and U.S. Park Police, the USAO-DC respectively moves to dismiss the indictment without prejudice," the court filing said, meaning the case could be brought again.

The filing includes an email sent on June 11 by a National Park Service engineer to others in the Department of the Interior describing their "concern" that overspray of the new pool coating along the perimeter of the pool could lead to a one-to-two-foot strip "that is vulnerable to peeling."

That was the area along the perimeter that Hearn was alleged to have pulled up, according to the filing.

At a news conference on July 2 announcing Hearn's indictment, Pirro told reporters that the "the evidence shows and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool," and she said the evidence showed that Hearn was observed "forcefully and violently" removing liner material from the bottom of the pool.

The filing from her office on Friday concluded: "Given all of this newly discovered information, it is dif