The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has become the centre of a legal battle, with civil litigants filing an emergency motion to preserve evidence at the drained site.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed the emergency motion on Thursday against the Interior Department, seeking access to the pool while it remains drained and fenced off.
The pool was drained to repair its “American flag blue” lining, which began visibly separating from the basin shortly after installation by contractors working under the Trump administration.
Hydrogen peroxide dumped into the pool to combat an algae bloom contributed to the damage, as did a presidential motorcade that drove over the epoxy lining while it was still curing.
President Trump has insisted the damage was the result of deliberate sabotage, claiming that communist wreckers had slashed and torn the pool’s new lining with significant force.
“The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” Trump said in a statement circulated widely online.
“These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added, demanding accountability for the alleged attack on the monument.
An FBI forensic team was deployed to the site on Wednesday, though a Washington Post investigation found the damage lines up with seams in the epoxy and extends throughout the centre of the pool.
On July 2, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro announced the arrest of David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, who has been charged with felony vandalism in DC Superior Court.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s civil lawsuit, originally filed in spring against the Department of the Interior, centres on procedural failures by the National Park Service before the pool was altered.
The foundation argues that NPS bypassed the historic-preservation review required before making changes to a National Register-listed landscape, as well as the required environmental review.
Both reviews were allegedly skipped so the pool’s grey basin could be painted blue ahead of President Trump’s July 4th celebration at the monument.
The pool currently remains fenced off to the public while investigations, both criminal and civil, continue to unfold around the damaged lining.