Nothing about what happened Friday, when the Justice Department dropped its case against a purported Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandal, was completely surprising. The administration was pressed repeatedly about the possibility that the damage to the Reflecting Pool wasn't caused by vandals. Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn listens as his attorney Norman Eisen speaks on July 9, in Washington, DC, after he pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Members of the National Guard stand in the shade near the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall on July 9, in Washington, DC. People are seen walking on the basin floor of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on July 30.