A judge in Washington, D.C. appears prepared to block Donald Trump’s administration and prosecutors from charging a former Olympian a second time for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office had agreed to drop felony charges against 67-year-old David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the monument after recently applied blue liner started to flap to the surface. But she wanted to leave open the possibility of prosecuting Hearn again.
Hearn asked a judge to dismiss the case with prejudice, which would prevent prosecutors from reviving felony charges against him for the same alleged crime. His legal team called the prospect of a new case against him “prosecutorial harassment.” D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman hauled lawyers to court on Friday to hear why prosecutors would want to revive charges against Hearn after admitting that they couldn’t prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is about defending democracy,” Hearn said outside the courthouse on Friday. Edelman pressed the Department of Justice on what kind of prosecution Hearn could face in the future, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence said an answer would only be “speculation,” according to AllRiseNews.
Hearn is not currently under investigation, according to Spence. But “10 minutes from now that decision could change,” he said. Trump, meanwhile, has publicly demanded Pirro “revisit her hastily made decision” while accusing her of having “folded like an umbrella” by agreeing to drop the case.
Spence said the president’s remarks “speak for themselves.” If someone like Hearn can be charged for a crime they didn’t commit, “then every American is at risk,” attorney Norm Eisen told reporters outside the courthouse. He's got nothing to do with the toxic contamination of the reflecting pool and the algae farm that is growing in it,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told reporters.
They should deal with it without bringing my constituent into it.” Weeks after she publicly accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping out the Reflecting Pool’s Trump-requested blue liner, Pirro filed a stunning motion to dismiss the case entirely — outraging Trump, who has spent weeks demanding prosecutors target alleged vandals despite his own administration admitting that the damage was caused by contractors. Pirro’s office admitted that the Trump-requested “American flag blue” sealant started to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed after recent renovations to the site this summer. Contractors left behind “widespread damage,” according to her office.
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