The Trump administration has been accused of concealing evidence disproving, as they claim, that the Washington, D.C. Reflecting Pool was attacked by vandals, court records show.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation on Thursday filed an emergency motion against the Interior department to preserve evidence protected by a large fence while the Reflecting Pool is drained, Legal AF’s Michael Popok reported Saturday.
“They just don’t want to admit that they effed up the job because they didn’t competitively bid it,” Popok said of the Trump administration. “They didn’t involve scientists.”
The Reflecting Pool was drained after July 4 following controversial renovations that left it green. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued this was an effort to “clean up the fireworks stuff” and “repair the [alleged] vandalism” to the pool’s broken liner.
But the preservationists contend the Reflecting Pool’s ruined state is “the product of Defendants’ rushed and poorly conceived plans.”
The drained pool provides “a unique but temporary opportunity” to collect and preserve evidence to support this contention, the motion argued.
It requests the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allow access to the dry basin, mostly to take photos, before it is refilled.
“Unfortunately, Defendants have erected a fence around the Reflecting Pool and generally prohibit members of the public (including undersigned counsel) from approaching the Pool or the sidewalk surrounding it,” the motion reads. “Within days, Defendants will make additional modifications to the basin and then fill it with water.”
Refilling the Reflecting Pool means “forever eliminating” the chance to document the pool’s current state and “destroying potentially relevant evidence,” the motion argued.
The Trump administration notably indicted former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on a felony destruction-of-property charge for allegedly ripping up part of the pool’s liner. One of his attorneys is from the same firm that filed the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s motion.
Popok called the case against Hearn absurd.
“I think the judge here is itching to dismiss the indictment,” he said. “It’s a ridiculous indictment.”
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