Donald J. Trump’s top federal prosecutor in D.C. has pulled the plug on the criminal case against David Hearn, the 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In a late-Friday filing, Pirro moved to dismiss the single destruction-of-property charge against Hearn, who’d pleaded not guilty and faced up to a decade behind bars.
The dismissal undercuts Trump’s own claim that “radical” vandals wrecked the pool — Pirro’s own filing points instead to shoddy contractor work and the Interior Department withholding information from her office. It comes just a week after a judge warned the administration it was “operating at its own peril” pursuing the case.
CBS News reports:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. had charged Hearn with felony destruction of government property, accusing him of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the sealant that was recently installed at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool in a project championed by President Trump. Hearn strongly denied those allegations.
Hearn’s legal team — Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, and Steve Levin — didn’t hold back, saying the case should never have been filed and that the government owes Hearn a concession for what they called a “ready, fire, aim” prosecution.