Federal prosecutors dropped the last of their cases against people charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in DC had filed charges of vandalism in connection with damage to the iconic DC pond against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers. President Donald Trump had previously described the supposed pool-damaging culprits as "SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE."
The office for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, however, decided to drop the cases against all four people after concluding that contractors, not vandals, were to blame for the pool’s deteriorated state. Court records obtained by USA TODAY show that prosecutors filed paperwork to drop all of the cases on Friday, July 31.
USA TODAY has reached out to Pirro for comment. The move to drop the last of the Reflecting Pool cases comes after Trump has repeatedly alleged the pool was vandalized.
"To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," the president said as late as Saturday, Aug. 1, in a statement on an official Trump social media account. "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"
