In the process of making the filing, the US Attorney’s office uncharacteristically took a big shit on the Department of the Interior, headed by Secretary Doug Burgum. (Heckuva job, Dougie!)
DOI represented that nearly all of the damage to the Reflecting Pool was due to vandalism with only a small portion due to unidentified other causes. … DOI provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case. The information subsequently demanded by USAO disclosed by DOI — which was not known to the prosecutors or the grand jury before the return of the indictment — strongly suggest that a rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor, led to the damage to the lining of the Reflecting Pool. … Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”) was selected as the sole-source contractor for installation of the Reflecting Pool lining. … It was not until USAO-DC repeatedly reached out to DOI dozens and dozens of times that DOI slowly started trickling information to USAO-DC. Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.
As you can see from the verbiage above, the filing also took a subtle shot at Trump’s decision to award a no-bid contract. In another part of the filing, it took a not-so-subtle shot at the pressure on the contractor to rush the job before Trump’s silly UFC fight. The line prosecutor didn’t use the word “silly UFC fight,” but if court documents can have subtext, the implication was somewhere between “Trump’s silly UFC fight” and “Trump’s fucking UFC fight.”
On June 9, a final inspection was completed, and crews then cleaned the site and removed the equipment, in time for the UFC fight scheduled to occur on the White House grounds on June 14, 2026. But only two days later, on June 11, 2026, an NPS engineer was alerted to peeling of the Reflecting Pool lining. … It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026. … The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed.
Always amusing to watch the rats turn on each other. Enjoy the view from under the bus, Mr. Burgum. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of company.
Of course if it had all worked out, trumpy would be crowing “Only _I_ could’ve worked this miracle,” but of course the predictable failure is always someone else’s fault.