Charges against David Hearn were dropped days ago. But Trump says a National Park Service employee saw him ‘violently’ vandalize the pool

President Donald Trump is continuing to push back against the decision to drop a vandalism case connected to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He shared a screenshot of court documents on Truth Social that included an account from a National Park Service employee.

The document describes what the employee, referred to as W-1, says he saw former Olympian David Hearn do at the Reflecting Pool. Trump used this account to argue that the case against Hearn should not have been dropped.

Federal prosecutors asked for the felony charge against Hearn to be dismissed earlier this month, saying new evidence made the case hard to prove. Trump has disagreed with that decision and has asked U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to take another look at the case.

Court document describes what a National Park Service worker says he witnessed

According to the court document Trump shared, two National Park Service employees were cleaning inside the Reflecting Pool when Hearn came near the area. The document says employee W-1 saw Hearn use his phone, which the employee believed was to take photos or video of damage to the pool.

The document then describes what happened next. It states that Hearn “knelt, placed both hands into the reflecting pool, below the surface of the water, and started to ‘violently’ rip and tug at a large portion of the blue pool coating.”

The filing also says W-1 asked another NPS employee to call the police and told Hearn to stop touching the coating. According to the document, Hearn responded that NPS staff were “awfully sensitive about the pool” and kept pulling at the coating until National Guard soldiers showed up.

Trump referenced this account in his Sunday post, writing that the NPS employee was a “highly credible witness” who saw Hearn vandalize the pool in broad daylight. He said the employee gave this account to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in early July.

Trump also claimed there were other incidents at the Reflecting Pool, including an “acid like material” used on newly planted grass near the pool, where the numbers “86 47” were allegedly written. He said there is no video evidence for this claim, only the damage itself.

In the same post, Trump acknowledged that contractors were responsible for some of the problems at the pool. He described this as “some contractor error” that happened while crews rushed to finish the renovation before July 4, but said the contractor-related damage was limited.

Hearn was initially indicted on the felony charge on July 2, on one count of felony destruction of property. U.S. Park Police had alleged that he grabbed and pulled at a loose section of the pool coating on June 19 and kept doing so after a National Park Service employee told him to stop. Officials had initially said the damage was worth more than $1,000.

According to Fox News, Pirro’s office later said prosecutors only received “barebones” reports from the Department of the Interior before they sought the indictment. Her office said they were not given records at the time showing broader problems with how the pool coating had been installed.

Prosecutors said that documents produced after the indictment showed some of the damage was linked to faulty installation work by contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings, along with pressure to finish the project before events tied to the America 250 celebration.

In their request to dismiss the case, prosecutors wrote, “Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.” They said the new evidence made it difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn caused the damage listed in the indictment.

Prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice, which means charges could still be filed again in the future. Trump has repeatedly criticized Pirro’s move to drop the charge, saying last week that he “disagree[d] 100%” with her choice and later saying she had “choked” under pressure in the case.

Hearn’s attorneys, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin, previously said the case “should never have been brought.” They have said the administration wrongly arrested and charged a man who “did nothing wrong.”

Trump argued Sunday that the witness account shows the damage to the Reflecting Pool was not only caused by faulty construction. He pointed to the government’s own court filing as support for that claim.