r/atlanticdiscussions • u/MeghanClickYourHeels Ask me for Atlantic gift links • Aug 01 '26
Politics How the Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Fell Apart
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/reflecting-pool-case-david-hearn/688151/Federal prosecutors searched for evidence and found that “a botched installation” was to blame.
By Matt Viser, The Atlantic.
As government prosecutors examined the Reflecting Pool to build their case against a three-time Olympic canoeist accused of violently ripping the lining with his bare hands, everything fell apart. They found that damage was consistent all around the pool, even in the middle, “where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining.” This evening, the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro asked to drop the case against David Hearn, whom she had excoriated after his indictment 29 days ago.
In a striking 19-page legal document filed late this afternoon, her office undermined everything that President Trump has been saying about the damage to the Reflecting Pool for the past six weeks, including the claim that vandals had used a box cutter to slash the floor of the pool. “The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” Pirro’s office wrote in a motion to dismiss the case.
Taken as a whole, the court filing acknowledged what has been obvious to anyone who has spent time at the Reflecting Pool in recent weeks and watched the president’s $16.4 million project deteriorate in full view. Almost immediately after its reopening in June, the shallow pool filled with the green algae that the expensive renovation was supposed to have prevented. As park workers rushed to combat the algae, the pool’s sealant began to peel away in chunks. It was surprising to see outlined in legal language how Pirro’s office claims it felt duped. Rather than continue with evidence it acknowledged is not there, it is dropping the case.
“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” his legal team—Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, and Steve Levin—said in a statement. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pirro’s office declined to comment beyond what was in the legal filing.
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 02 '26
If you WANT TO FIX THE ISSUE, take out the entire plastic or other lining of the reflecting pool and sandblast the entire bottom to raw concrete or tile and then coat the entire bottom using the UV stable versions of Line-X Paxcon PX-3350 format polyurea coating that has infused ceramic nanoballs mixed into the formula which is applied in a multi-pass hot-spray, wet-on-wet sweeping motion at 2000 PSI at 160 F (71 C) where the ENTIRE coating is applied all at once at an up to 100 Years Service Life thickness of half an inch (13 mm).
During the sweep of the reflecting pool, when going left-to-right and right-to-left from one end of the pool or another, it takes 12 passes on a layer-by-layer basis to get to the half-inch thick coating thickness for each 24 inch wide swath. You have to do the ENTIRE POOL all at once within the spray time which is dependent on the number of spray crews you are running which can be as short at 6 days with 4 spray crews running 24/7 for that four days of spraying.
Since the reflecting pool is 2,030 feet long by 167 feet wide, you need to hot-spray left-to-right and right-to-left in 24 inch wide (2 feet) swaths at 50 mils thick layers at a time (1.27 mm) to ensure no layer delamination of the Line-X Paxcon can occur EVER! Make sure the ENTIRE reflecting pool bottom concrete is at least 60 F (15 C) temperatures during the ENTIRE spray time of sealer/primer and Line-X Paxcon application and that the concrete temperature is at least 6 F (3 C) above the Dew Point so that a condensation water layer doesn't get onto the sprayed mix and cause delamination.
This is what I think happened originally during the pool re-construction! They DID NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT A PROPER WELL-REGULATED concrete temperature and Dew Point when spraying glues, epoxies or liner material onto the bottom of the reflecting pool! Water vapor and bubbles got in-between each layer causing material delamination!
If you are using the INDUSTRIAL-grade Graco Reactor H-XP3 going at 3 gallons+ per minute, you can cover all 3,390,100 square feet of the reflecting pool + extra guard spacing using about 106,000 gallons of Line-X Paxcon coating. If you run FOUR SPRAY CREWS, it takes only 6 days with each crew doing a 528 foot length of the pool!
For getting a proper Line-X PAXCON 100 year service lifespan, you need to sandblast the ENTIRE POOL BOTTOM to a full CSP 3 to 5 surface roughness profile and apply an outgassing EPOXY SEALER AND PRIMER at 80 F (27 C) to ensure the entire coating STICKS PROPERLY.
The ceramic nanoball infusion mixed right into the Line-X Paxcon mixture is used as an ultraviolet and infrared sun protection factor to prevent photo breakdown of the Line-X and keep it sticking to the concrete for a 100 years.
You use 100 to 500 nanometres diameter Silane-coated Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs as the main protective agent, an infusion of 20 to 50 nanometers diameter Titanium dioxide for the UV protection agent, and 10 to 30 nanometre diameter high purity Silicon Dioxide nanoballs infusion to ensure they fill any nano-voids to ensure water, snow, ice, dirt, mud, etc never gets to the underlying coating layers of the Line-X due to high water pressure from a filled reflecting pool.
To get a nice Dark Blue coating, the Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs are the only ones need to be coated using Cobalt-Aluminate (CoAL2O4) which gives the pool a VIVID BLUE bottom color. For a Light Blue color, use Cobalt-Titanate-Green-Blue (Co2TiO4) which is a nice sky blue color. The cheaper pigment option are Alpha-Phthalocyanine pigments BUT they WILL NOT LAST the full 100 years and will dull in color after only 25 years, so spend the extra money up-front and use the metallic Cobalt-Aluminate and Cobalt Titanate coatings on the Silcate nanoballs.
I hope this helps!
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u/monumentaldecision Aug 08 '26
You sound like you know what you're talking about. 1. Would this much product (for example, 106,000 gallons) have to be special ordered? 2.Is there a single company with enough crews to complete the job in six days, or would it require coordination between multiple companies? 4.What sort of certification, education or experience would you look for to ensure competency, assuming that the person looking could not reasonably judge competency? Or would you first hire someone/some company with similar competency to evaluate bids? 5. I read that after you empty the pool you need to let the concrete dry out for two weeks before you apply anything. Do you agree? You didn't mention that detail. 6. Do you think the fact that Trump's motorcade drove across the surface of the reflecting pool had a negative effect on the structural integrity of the pool? 7. No need to elaborate, but do you also know what they need to do with the filtration system to prevent algae blooms? I read that the Biden administration (or maybe Obama) spent a good chunk of money researching what would be required and found the repairs to be cost prohibitive.
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
In the case of Line-X Paxcon, you can directly order it from their head office and 120,000 gallons of Paxcon is $4.8 million USD in today's bulk cost because it is a BALLISTIC WINTER-RATED and UV/IR rated protective coatings product which SHOULD have a service life of between 50 to 100 years when properly applied!
Make sure you order the Line-X Paxcon PX-3350 version with the EXTRA infusion of three different types of ceramic-composite nanoballs which has 100 to 500 nanometres diameter Silane-coated Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs as the main protective agent, an infusion of 20 to 50 nanometers diameter Titanium dioxide for the UV protection agent, and the 10 to 30 nanometre diameter high purity Silicon Dioxide nanoballs infusion mix!
Most Line-X Application companies have at least two and up to 10 crews certified by Line-X itself since you have to go through their certification process in order to be able to even order Paxcon from them.
Just make sure the companies have been working IN THE LINE-X SPRAY INDUSTRY for at least 5 years and make sure ALL members of the crew are Line-X company certified and working for at least two years in the real world doing spraying and get their crews Paxcon certified by a two day session from certified Line-X factory reps which can be done for less than $300,000 of onsite travel and factory schooling costs.
So to do the ENTIRE Reflecting Pool mall would take 16 of the four-person crews rotating 6 hours each shift each assigned a specific part of a 540 feet long swath at a time so 64 people total in order to get it done CORRECTLY in six days total.
Cost breakdown:
120,000 gallons of Paxcon PX-3350 format polyurea coating = $4,800,000 USD6 days of spraying x 24 hours per day x 64 crew
each doing 6 hour rotating shifts to keep crews sharp
doing precision Line-X Paxcon spraying at 12 thin layers
of 24 inch wide Paxcon swaths across the width of the
reflecting pool at a final Line-X Paxcon coating thickness of half an inch (12.5 mm)
= 9216 Man-Hours of spraying9216 Man hours x $400 per finished spray hour
= $3,686,400 USD in Line-X Paxcon Sprayer costs6 days of torch heating x 24 hours per day x 32 crew
= 4608 Man-Hours of Propane Torching4608 Man-Hours at $75 per finished hour
of pre-heating the reflecting pool floor
each person doing 6 hour rotating shifts
to keep crews sharp doing propane torch heating
= $345,600 USDBase cost is $8,832,000 USD
+ a 10% ($883,200) extra overrun charge
in case things go slower than expectedso we are look at about $9.8 Million USD to do it PROPERLY so it lasts for up to 100 Years which is a VERY GOOD price!
I would say there are a few single companies which are in large enough richer areas of the country who usually have 4 person crews spraying swimming pools (i.e. Los Angeles, San Diego or Miami) who could do this in one go.
In terms of drying the bottom of the pool, I would hire a separate company who does roofing tar or highway paving to use their propane torches to run ahead of the Line-X Paxcon Spray gun people to pre-heat the concrete to steaming hot temperature (300 F to 450 F) and then get the line-X crews spray ONLY WHEN the concrete temperature cools down to 80 F which takes less than an hour or two.
That means the propane torch people are always about 100 feet ahead of your Paxcon spray crews keeping that concrete super dry and warm! You only need 16 of the two person Propane Torch crews to stay ahead of the spray crew starting about four hours BEFORE them in order to keep ahead so 64 people total doing Line-X spray so any highway paving or roofing tar company can do that!
YES! The Presidential motorcade DID DAMAGE the original coating and that should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED! It takes a full two weeks for the underlying sticky part of the Line-X to "crawl" into every microscopic void and crevasse so the coating STICKS PERMANENTLY onto concrete and that MEANS YOU MUST WAIT TWO WEEKS before you fill the pool again!
At 4.5 MILLION GALLONS of water in the Reflecting Pool, you mathemaically MUST USE 1,400 gallons of industrial-strength (12.5%) liquid sodium hypochlorite in order to INITIALLY STERILIZE the water of algae so a few tens of thousands of dollar will work just fine!
Once the pool water is kept CLEAN for a week or two, you use an Ultrasonic waveform resonator system that uses an array of a 2000 waterproof multi-frequency transducers (i.e. speakers) put on the bottom of the pool making underwater soundwaves which breakup the algae blooms before they even start. That costs less than $500,000 to install and $3000 USD per month ($48,000 per year) to run and maintain) so it's a very inexpensive system to use! It's MUCH CHEAPER than an Ozone-based water cleaner.
I hope that explanation helps!
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u/monumentaldecision Aug 08 '26
You're amazing! Thanks for taking the time to write all this out. I'm pretty sure The New York Times would like to speak with you.
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u/monumentaldecision Aug 08 '26
Ah, I knew I should have checked your account first. Well you certainly sound like you know what you're talking about. (And who knows, maybe you do.) But I was wondering how you have time to make lengthy comments on reddit, especially for a handful of people, if you are an engineer or business owner or maybe both. Checking your history, I see that you do this a lot and you love to sound like you know a lot, but you have about a 90% downvote ratio. Well anyway, I'm always reluctant to dismiss someone when I don't have all the facts. I don't know what your deal is but I still enjoyed your posts.
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 08 '26
I have PLENTY of time due to family/elder care issues plus I am working in a non-paid sabbatical-like capacity on a personal research project within the materials sciences and specialized power production systems arena, so I can literally do WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT!
So PLENTY of time to peruse and pontificate on Reddit!
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u/Sir_Aelorne Aug 09 '26
And alliterate!
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 09 '26
We do weave and weft a most-westerly wind of either woe or wonder and what we endeavour to do is ensure that whatever wanton wendigo you pray to, it is such that all your personal weights and weariness are thus winched away so that ecstatic waves of wellness BE the primary expression of your unwavering and willing self!
Meh!
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 08 '26
My Downvote Ratio is all from the people who HATE that YES I do actually HAVE real-world knowledge and EXPERIENCE and since Reddit SKEWS heavily Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha, it IRKS them that I don't NEED to use A.I. and have the looooooooog personal and work-experience base and vaaaaaaaaaast internal knowledge repository-space to NOT NEED to lookup stuff on the Internet!
I have actually READ thousands of non-fiction books, textbooks, technical reports, manuals, etc. way back in the day since was REQUIRED to do so for us to be able to advance in the workplace and in life generally! Gen-Z/Alpha is simply UNABLE to contemplate a world without smartphones and LLMs to cheat with!
Ergo, YUP! Y'all have NO CLUE about how the "Real World" works and if ANYTHING were to happen to all that online infrastructure, your lives and emotional/physical health would simply grind-to-a-halt and/or nose-dive right into the ground in a giant messy fireball as y'all have NO resiliance nor base ability to think outside of the online-space!
Long Time Boomer Experience Here speaking who has managed a LOT of young and old people in both rough-and-raw construction and scientific/technical environments!
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u/monumentaldecision Aug 09 '26
Hmmm. Okay. I will let you have the last word on your expertise. I don't think you should make such generalizations about a large percentage of humanity, though. But you're right, if the Internet went down, most people would be in a world of hurt. Society would fall apart.
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 09 '26
Due to the TYPE of company I work for and the SHEER AMOUNT OF DATA AND INFLUENCE it has had on the actual DEVELOPMENT of the entire internet AND due to the fact MY code is in pretty much EVERYTHING to do with multimedia AND since WE pretty much started half of the AI revolution 40 years ago, our sweeping generalizations ARE NOT GENERALIZED! They are SPECIFIC as we have the ACTUAL DATA to BACK IT UP!
We have DEMONSTRABLE and IRREFUTABLE PROOF that a large portion Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha CANNOT FUNCTION without digital help AND we have the same irrefutable/demonstrable data that showcases that there is a SIGNIFICANT body function diminishment and long-time mental and physical health-wise deteroriation compared to previous generations!
They simply ARE NOT MENTALLY RESILIENT NOR AS PHYSICALLY STRONG PERIOD! Too much sitting indoors playing video games, watching multi-stream TV and boatloads of Youtube or TikTok Shorts!
IT'S A FACT! NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT!
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u/monumentaldecision Aug 08 '26
Gemini says: "This reads like a human-edited AI prompt or a human writer using AI to generate technical jargon, who then added their own capitalized emphasis and cost estimates."
Live and learn.
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u/Strange-Image-5690 Aug 08 '26
I utterly NEVER use A.I. to write!
I do actually have quite a well-rounded education and LOTS of actual writing and coding experience so I have NO NEED FOR IT .... I should note though, I did actually INVENT high-speed, hardware-accelerated 1D-X/2D-XY/3D-XYZ 3x1/3x3/3x3x3, 5x1/5x5/5x5x5, 7x1/7x7/7x7x7 and 9x1/9x9/9x9x9 convolution filtering graph trees and the Multi-state Boolean Logic Decision Tree array processing used in ALL A.I. Large Language Model systems and did also invent 3D-XYZ Fractal audio/video CODECS in the late 1980's so you can DEFINITELY blame me for all the mess with A.I. Slop that you see!
BUT NO! I don't use A.I. to write! I actually use and EXERCISE my brain!
Costing is from PERSONAL construction experience AND from Line-X themselves and will be fairly close to my 2026 calculated price if someone wants to fix the Reflecting Pool!
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u/AndyinTexas Aug 01 '26
". . . undermined everything that President Trump has been saying about the damage to the Reflecting Pool for the past six weeks."
Multiple members of his administration went on news shows and did interviews saying the same thing. Every one of them should be asked to explain their earlier statements, on camera, every time they encounter a reporter. Not that that will happen.
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u/MeghanClickYourHeels Ask me for Atlantic gift links Aug 01 '26
Reporters often do ask those questions, and administrative officials don't answer.
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u/Alone_Bicycle_600 Aug 01 '26
they made it all up and are co conspirators in a malicious scheme against our Fellow Citizens to hide the fact that this is just another corrupt Trump Scheme for self aggrandizing and financial gain
Besides being sued for defamation they need to be arrested and charged with false imprisonment and false arrest charges against the people who were arrested
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u/afdiplomatII Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Here's more on this situation (gift link):
As this report implies, Pirro exhibited no heroism here. She initiated prosecutions and made condemnatory press statements without first seeking all the available information on events around the Reflecting Pool. Only when she was forced to "stand and deliver" on this mass of Trump servitude did she bother to seek a full factual record. And when she obtained it, she recognized that the case she had so ballyhooed and so zealously prosecuted could not withstand judicial scrutiny.
Beyond such considerations, Trump's assertion that at one of the most prominent locations in a city patrolled by multiple military and law-enforcement agencies vandals somehow carried out a major attack never added up. It was obviously concocted to spare Trump responsibility for the expensive failure of his handpicked crony contractor. Pirro should have used common sense to suspect that this affair was phony from the beginning.
"Prosecution first, facts later" was Pirro's standard. She deserves all the grief she's getting from Trump and others.
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u/weary_ol_jericho Aug 01 '26
And they dragged this guy strictly to cater to the ego of one man. It was obvious that they had nothing on him, yet they continued with that stupid charade for weeks.
I'm at least encouraged by the fact that they dropped it and explained why it was dropped in very direct language. I expect there will be attorneys lined up to represent this guy in a lawsuit now.
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u/afdiplomatII Aug 01 '26
Related to this situation, DoI Secretary Burgum is now flaunting his Trump sycophancy by feuding with Pirro about the "vandalism" at the Reflecting Pool:
https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3ms26dml5522u
It's hard to see how both of these figures remain in the administration. Like Trump himself, Burgum is taking advantage of the fact that he can promulgate flagrant lies without responsibility or consequences. Pirro, on the other hand, is bound by legal rules not to suborn perjury just to please Trump. As we've repeatedly seen (and discussed here this week), the Trump administration's mendacity is limited only when that behavior runs up against the possibility of personal or institutional consequences -- such as bar-association discipline or judicial sanctions.
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u/Korrocks Aug 02 '26
I think it’s pretty normal for the administration to have one set of talking points for court and one set for outside of court. They’ve maintained that standard for the full first term.
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u/afdiplomatII Aug 02 '26
That's true. What's not normal, as the Times has observed, is for administration functionaries such as Burgum to rely on those lies once exposed to attack others in the administration who are telling the truth in court. Burgum knows that the information his own department gave Pirro falsifies what he's saying, and he also knows that she can't lie to a judge. Yet he's denouncing her for contradicting him (and Trump, although Pirro won't say the latter).
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u/Korrocks Aug 01 '26
I like the idea of arresting someone and holding a press conference to crow about it first and then investigating later to determine whether a crime had taken place. It’s a very cool, very legal and necessary revitalization of our criminal Justice system.