Donald Trump’s administration has turned to yet another contractor with a checkered legal past as it tries to fix the botched renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The monument has been closed for months after Trump’s $16 million “repairs” to the century-old pool resulted in peeling blue sealant and a record-breaking algal bloom that turned the water slime green.
Originally, the task of installing a water-purification system to prevent algal blooms fell to a long-time Trump supporter and two-time felon who pleaded guilty to bribing a congressman and violating campaign finance laws.
Now, the Department of the Interior has awarded a $2.7 million contract to clean the pool to a Massachusetts-based company whose chief executive is being prosecuted for election fraud, according to CNN.
Renewable energy company American Ag Energy will repair and maintain the pool’s sewage and purification systems, according to the official contract description.
The one-year contract could be extended for another five years and grow to up to $8.8 million, CNN reported.
The company’s CEO, Richard Rosen, was convicted last year of voter fraud for casting ballots in the 2016 election in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The state supreme court overturned the conviction and remanded the case to Grafton County Superior Court after finding the trial judge had made improper evidentiary rulings, CNN reported.
Rosen told the network he was in mediation with the New Hampshire attorney general’s office over the charges.
The Daily Beast has approached American Ag Energy and the attorney general’s office for comment.
Rosen told CNN he had learned about the Reflecting Pool’s algae problem from one of the company’s directors. He later read a news report about it.
“I realized that I actually knew how to solve this problem,” he said. “They want me to solve it the right way, OK, and they’re doing a very good job, trying to do the right thing, and I will be very helpful to them.”
Trump initially estimated the Reflecting Pool repairs would cost $2 million to $3 million, and spent months bragging that his “American-flag blue” makeover would be ready in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
Citing the need to move quickly, the National Park Service bypassed the government’s usual competitive-bidding process and awarded no-bid contracts for the work.
One $1.7 million contract went to the Ohio-based firm Greenwater Services, The New York Times revealed in June, while the Virginia firm Atlantic Industrial Coatings was paid $14.7 million to spread blue waterproofing material on the pool’s concrete floor.
Greenwater is owned by J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust led by John J. Cafaro, a Trump donor who owns a Palm Beach mansion near the president’s private Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump has described Cafaro as a “fantastic man,” despite his multiple run-ins with the law.
In 2002, Cafaro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe former Democratic Rep. Jim Traficant of Ohio. In 2004, he admitted to making an undisclosed $10,000 “loan” to his daughter Capri Cafaro’s unsuccessful run for Congress in violation of campaign donation limits.
The loan was never repaid.
After problems emerged with the work on the Reflecting Pool, Trump claimed vandals caused the damage and ordered a law-enforcement blitz at the site.
Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested and charged with felony destruction of property—a charge that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison—after he stopped at the Reflecting Pool during a bike ride and put his hand in the water.
The charges were later dropped against Hearn and three other people accused of destroying the Reflecting Pool after the government’s own witnesses admitted the landmark was already damaged and would have needed thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs in any case.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum nevertheless insisted as recently as this week that “There was vandalism in spite of what everybody says.”
