After spending the evening free associating blather about a six-year-old election, the president woke up and started free associating blather about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The universe’s least subtle metaphor is once again revealing its filthy, corrupted interior. The monument was drained again to repair the “American flag blue” lining which started to visibly separate from the basin shortly after Trump’s pool guys rolled it on — and the hydrogen peroxide they dumped in there to kill the algae bloom didn’t help. Ditto for the presidential motorcade driving over it as the epoxy was curing.
The president insists the pool was sabotaged by communist wreckers, presumably ninjas with magical powers to evade the observation of the multiple cameras that are trained on the pool at all hours.
“The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” he screeched. “These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
As of now, the pool is fenced off to the public. An FBI forensic team was out there on Wednesday trying to gin up evidence to support the president’s claims, but according to an investigative report by the Washington Post, the damage lines up pretty cleanly with seams in the epoxy and extends throughout the center of the pool.
Damn, those ninjas are tricky!
On July 2, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro announced that they’d nabbed one of the culprits, David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist — which is kind of like a ninja! He’s been charged with felony vandalism in DC Superior Court and will certainly seek discovery of the supposed damage he inflicted. But in the meantime there’s a pending civil suit where the plaintiffs are also demanding a better look at the pool.
Until this week, The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s lawsuit was mostly about paperwork — specifically, the paperwork the National Park Service didn’t do before it tarted up yet another national monument. TCLF sued the Department of the Interior in the spring, arguing that NPS blew through the historic-preservation review required before altering a National Register-listed landscape as well as the required environmental review, all so the pool’s grey basin could be turned blue in time for Donald Trump’s July 4th party. The government insists that the $15 million teardown of a century-old waterproofing system was either an emergency repair or a mundane substitution that it is exempt from review. Notably, a sworn declaration filed in the case by Frank Lands, NPS’s Deputy Director for Operations, does not repeat Trump’s claims about slashes that were “300 yards long.” Instead, Lands notes that “the U.S. Park Police responded to an NPS report of damage to the reflecting pool, including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material.”
Was the NPS report accurate? Lands does not say, although he does seem to concede that the liner was already “delaminating” before any of the saboteurs showed up. But TCLF aims to find out!
Citing this “unique but temporary opportunity for Plaintiffs to collect and preserve evidence that may be relevant to this case,” the plaintiff asks Judge Carl Nichols to “allow members of Plaintiffs’ counsel team (including any investigators and/or experts) temporary access to the sidewalk surrounding the Reflecting Pool for the limited purpose of photographing and inspecting the condition of the basin to preserve that evidence for future use in the case.”
TCLF argues that the government has made representations about the condition of this pool, and once the basin is full of water and algae, whatever’s actually down there is gone. Rule 34 permits a court to order a site inspection, and federal judges in DC grant this kind of request routinely when there’s a real risk evidence might disappear or even be spoliated.
“Defendants are seemingly attempting to shift blame for the defects in the Pool’s basin from their own mishandling of the resurfacing project,” they continue. “Plaintiffs must be permitted to obtain their own evidence regarding Defendants’ factual assertions before Defendants permanently alter and spoliate that very evidence.”
The Trump administration’s plan was clearly to seek forgiveness after the fact, rather than permission in advance as required by statute. It appears to have worked with the East Wing of the White House. But here, its own incompetence may trip it up, since the “delaminating” Reflecting Pool is clearly a fait un-accompli.
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
The post Litigants Ask To Check Reflecting Pool For ‘Sabotage’ appeared first on Above the Law.
After spending the evening free associating blather about a six-year-old election, the president woke up and started blather about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The universe’s least subtle metaphor is once again revealing its filthy, corrupted interior. The monument was drained again to repair the “American flag blue” lining which started to visibly separate from the basin shortly after Trump’s pool guys rolled it on — and the hydrogen peroxide they dumped in there to kill the algae bloom didn’t help. Ditto for the presidential motorcade driving over it as the epoxy was curing.
The president insists the pool was sabotaged by communist wreckers, presumably ninjas with magical powers to evade the observation of the multiple cameras that are trained on the pool at all hours.
“The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” he . “These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
As of now, the pool is fenced off to the public. An FBI forensic team was on Wednesday trying to gin up evidence to support the president’s claims, but according to an investigative report by the Washington Post, the damage lines up pretty cleanly with seams in the epoxy and extends throughout the center of the pool.
Damn, those ninjas are tricky!
On July 2, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro announced that they’d nabbed one of the culprits, David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist — which is kind of like a ninja! He’s been charged with felony vandalism in DC Superior Court and will certainly seek discovery of the supposed damage he inflicted. But in the meantime there’s a pending civil suit where the plaintiffs are also demanding a better look at the pool.
Until this week, The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s lawsuit was mostly about paperwork — specifically, the paperwork the National Park Service didn’t do before it tarted up yet another national monument. TCLF sued the Department of the Interior in the spring, arguing that NPS blew through the historic-preservation review required before altering a National Register-listed landscape as well as the required environmental review, all so the pool’s grey basin could be turned blue in time for Donald Trump’s July 4th party. The government insists that the $15 million teardown of a century-old waterproofing system was either an emergency repair or a mundane substitution that it is exempt from review. Notably, a sworn declaration filed in the case by Frank Lands, NPS’s Deputy Director for Operations, does not repeat Trump’s claims about slashes that were “300 yards long.” Instead, Lands notes that “the U.S. Park Police responded to an NPS report of damage to the reflecting pool, including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material.”
Was the NPS report accurate? Lands does not say, although he does seem to concede that the liner was already “delaminating” before any of the saboteurs showed up. But TCLF aims to find out!
Citing this “unique but temporary opportunity for Plaintiffs to collect and preserve evidence that may be relevant to this case,” the plaintiff asks Judge Carl Nichols to “allow members of Plaintiffs’ counsel team (including any investigators and/or experts) temporary access to the sidewalk surrounding the Reflecting Pool for the limited purpose of photographing and inspecting the condition of the basin to preserve that evidence for future use in the case.”
TCLF argues that the government has made representations about the condition of this pool, and once the basin is full of water and algae, whatever’s actually down there is gone. Rule 34 permits a court to order a site inspection, and federal judges in DC grant this kind of request routinely when there’s a real risk evidence might disappear or even be spoliated.
“Defendants are seemingly attempting to shift blame for the defects in the Pool’s basin from their own mishandling of the resurfacing project,” they continue. “Plaintiffs must be permitted to obtain their own evidence regarding Defendants’ factual assertions before Defendants permanently alter and spoliate that very evidence.”
The Trump administration’s plan was clearly to seek forgiveness after the fact, rather than permission in advance as required by statute. It appears to have worked with the East Wing of the White House. But here, its own incompetence may trip it up, since the “delaminating” Reflecting Pool is clearly a fait un-accompli.
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
