A sixth person has been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said six people have been arrested and seven have been cited “for the damage they did to our Country’s now beautiful Reflecting Pool.”
The president has made several claims of vandalism but has provided no evidence so far. Photos of the pool show the blue sealant has started to peel away, leaving chunks floating at the surface.
Algae growth has turned the water green.
In comments to reporters Tuesday afternoon, the president said the Interior Department “will share” photos of the purported vandalism.
On Saturday, Trump alleged that vandals at the historic landmark cut a 250-foot-long gash into the pool. In his post Tuesday, the president said the damage was made “by a very sharp knife or razors” and “is actually numerous slashes over a very long 350-foot length.”
“It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition,” he wrote. “Likewise, the small area at the bottom of the Pool was cut and powerfully lifted off the surface, leaving very jagged, uneven edges.”
Trump told reporters Monday that the pool had been cut “very violently.” He also alleged that “chemicals” were illegally placed in the water and threatened a “10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things.”
The U.S. Park Police, National Park Service and the Interior Department have not responded to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Among the people caught up in Trump’s claims of vandalism was U.S. Olympic canoeist David “Davey” Hearn. He previously told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours Friday after touching a piece of the detached coating.
He said he stopped by the pool after a bike ride “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.”
“It was kind of stiff, stiff, but flexible, pretty rubbery. Didn’t feel brittle in any way,” he said. “I didn’t remove, tear, rip, break or destroy any of it. The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there.”
Hearn said he was arrested by the National Guard but was not told what federal law he had violated. It’s not clear what he has been charged with.
His attorney, Norm Eisen, accused the Trump administration of trying to divert attention “from the real questions of how this project was managed, including its corrupt no-bid contracting process.”
“Using the criminal justice system to target innocent people as a form of distraction is textbook authoritarian behavior,” he said in a statement.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice, said most federal cases involve felonies rather than minor charges such as misdemeanors. He said the cases of the six people arrested could be handled differently because of the political climate.
“It’s not your typical case,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “The Department of Justice is doing the president’s bidding.”
Rahmani said that typically, when a person is accused of a federal misdemeanor, they are issued a citation and a notice to appear in court. Misdemeanor crimes are usually punishable by up to six months or one year in jail, depending on the crime, he said. Other times, the person may be given probation and ordered to pay a fine.
He said the president’s threat of 10 years in prison most likely refers to the people who were arrested.
Trump has said that to fix the pool, some of the water would have to be drained either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, when the country will celebrate 250 years of independence. Large areas of the grass around the pool are also being replaced, Trump said.
“In any event, even prior to fixing those areas, the Reflecting Pool is as beautiful as it can be,” he posted Tuesday.
The Reflecting Pool has been a pet project of the president, who, before renovations got underway this spring, characterized it as dilapidated and dirty and said previous presidents had neglected it. For years, algae has been an issue at the iconic D.C. site.
As part of the $14 million-plus rehabilitation project, a new liner was installed and a new coating, in a color the president has named “American flag blue,” was added.
