Former US Olympian David Hearn has pleaded not guilty to deliberately damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, entering his plea through an attorney at his initial appearance in the District of Columbia Superior Court. The case is politically charged, coming amid claims by Trump administration officials that the landmark has been repeatedly vandalised, and Hearn's defence team has condemned the prosecution as an abuse of prosecutorial power. The dispute matters because it ties an individual criminal charge to a high-profile, taxpayer-funded restoration project championed by President Donald Trump.

Hearn, a 67-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland, who competed as a canoe racer in three Summer Olympics, was indicted last Thursday on a single felony count of property destruction and is accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage. Trump launched the multimillion-dollar renovation ahead of the country's 250th independence celebrations, but the work — completed on 6 June — was quickly beset by algae blooms and peeling paint, which Trump has, without evidence, blamed on vandals. Hearn says he merely reached in to examine peeling sealant and released a chunk when told to by a park worker, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum maintains the pool has been vandalised since early June and that damage predates Hearn's alleged act. Defence attorney Norm Eisen said "it is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool" and urged Americans to be alarmed by the prosecution.