Trump Goons Botch Own Case Against Reflecting Pool ‘Vandal’
The Trump administration appears to have fumbled its lone vandalism case beyond repair.
Cheney Orr/REUTERS
The Trump administration may have sunk its own case against the only person charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
President Donald Trump continues to rage at alleged “vandals” after his $16 million pool renovations turned into a slimy and expensive embarrassment.
Al Drago/Reuters
“The Reflecting Pool, so badly damaged by Deranged Vandals, has been emptied as the massive slash gets repaired,” the 80-year-old president fumed on Truth Social on Friday. “What kind of animals would do such a thing?”
He concluded, “The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX.”
Though Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals carved a massive gash into the Reflecting Pool, no such damage was visible when it was fully drained last week.
Truth Social
But former Olympian David Hearn, the only person to be charged so far, says the Trump administration’s own blunders have rendered the case against him dead in the water.
In a motion to dismiss the federal indictment against Hearn, 67, his attorneys argued that U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro let the key evidence in the case—the lining of the pool Hearn is accused of damaging—slip away.
Four experts in waterproofing materials told The Washington Post that the peeling coating “strongly suggested errors in the application process,” after the paper’s analysis found that all lining failures occurred at seams in the coating that were painted at different times.
Aaron Schwartz/REUTERS
The government accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping two square feet of the pool’s new blue coating on June 19, but the three-time Olympic canoeist has pleaded not guilty to the felony destruction of property charge, saying he was simply touching already peeling material.
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Hearn’s attorneys said that despite their express request for federal prosecutors to preserve the evidence, the pool has been drained repeatedly, and large portions of the liner are now gone.
“The Constitution simply does not permit the government to charge a man with destroying an object, retain exclusive custody of that object, and then drain, disturb, and alter the object before the defense may examine it, despite a written demand for its preservation,” they said in their motion.
“The government’s failure to preserve this evidence, in the face of an express demand no less, has destroyed Mr. Hearn’s ability to collect evidence material to his defense on multiple elements of the charged offense. Dismissal is the only appropriate remedy in view of the government’s actions.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When reached for comment, the White House told the Daily Beast, “Refer you to the Judge’s office.”
In a sign of the case’s weakness, D.C. Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean last week denied Pirro’s request to bar Hearn from returning to the pool.
Hearn faces up to 10 years in prison. His lawyer has accused the Trump administration of trying to use his client as a scapegoat for its botched renovation project.
After the renovation spiraled into a fiasco, the Reflecting Pool was cordoned off behind a fence, which was later covered with a black tarp.
Al Drago/Reuters
Though Trump has repeatedly claimed vandals carved a massive gash into the Reflecting Pool, no such damage was visible when it was fully drained last week.
Instead, the empty pool bed—which Trump had demanded be painted a shade he called “American Flag Blue” before it turned a bright shade of green and was plagued by algae blooms—showed peeling paint in multiple places and was no longer blue.
Pirro, 75, held a press conference about the case against Hearn on July 2. Asked how prosecutors would prove the pool wasn’t already damaged before Hearn arrived, Pirro replied: “Come to the trial.”
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