Trump slammed prosecutors for dropping the Reflecting Pool case, and now a judge says it may be a ‘unique threat of meritless re-prosecution’

A Washington judge is signaling that he may block federal prosecutors from keeping the door open to future charges against a former Olympic athlete accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. During a hearing on Friday, Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman challenged the government on why it continues to insist on the right to potentially re-prosecute David Hearn, despite having admitted that its initial case lacked the necessary evidence.

According to The Hill, the judge spent significant time questioning assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence about President Trump’s influence on the case. Edelman pressed the prosecutor on how he was supposed to view the president’s public remarks about Hearn, his legal team, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro as anything other than “pressuring your office, your boss and the three of you to charge Mr. Hearn, recharge Mr. Hearn with what you had decided to be a meritless prosecution.”

Per The Independent, Hearn’s legal team pushed for the case to be dismissed with prejudice to prevent the government from reviving the felony charges. They characterized the threat of a new indictment as “prosecutorial harassment.”

The back and forth

This case stems from the $14 million renovation project on the Reflecting Pool that finished in early June. Per The Hill, shortly after the work was completed, the “American flag blue” coating specifically requested by the president began peeling and floating to the surface of the water. Trump has consistently blamed the damage on vandalism, claiming that detractors had intentionally cut the lining, but internal records tell a different story. 

Court filings reportedly indicate that a National Park Service engineer warned officials within days of the installation that the “top layer of the liner has peeled.” Despite those warnings, Hearn was charged with felony destruction of property in early July. Prosecutors initially claimed they had evidence that he had “willfully damaged” the landmark. 

Once the case was underway, however, Pirro’s office admitted that the damage was likely the result of a flawed, rushed installation by a no-bid contractor. The office stated that the Department of Interior had provided “less than fulsome information” before the case went to a grand jury. The Hill reported that they then moved to dismiss the charges.

This admission of error led to a public falling-out between the president and the U.S. attorney. On August 3, the president reportedly told reporters in the Oval Office that Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.” 

Per the outlet, Trump has since continued to pressure her office to reconsider the dismissal. In an August 9 post on Truth Social, the president claimed, “A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn (ActBlue) in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.”

“Isn’t this a unique threat of meritless re-prosecution?” Edelman asked, per The Hill. Spence replied that the president’s statements “speak for themselves.” The prosecutor argued that it was premature to discuss the hypothetical possibility of new charges, as no further grand jury action has taken place. He did, however, concede that while Hearn is not currently under investigation, that decision could change in as little as “10 minutes.”

Per the Independent, Pirro’s office also addressed this in the court filings. They wrote, “Should the case be re-presented to a grand jury based on newly discovered evidence, any re-indictment of the case would not constitute harassment.”

Hearn’s attorneys remain unconvinced. “Why are they reserving the right to reindict a case they acknowledge should never have been indicted?” Steve Levin reportedly asked the judge during the hearing. 

“From day one, the case against Mr. Hearn was motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support,” lawyers wrote in the filings, per The Independent. “Defying both decency and common sense, the government proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge.”

As Hearn left the courthouse, he had a different analysis of this fight. He reportedly told reporters, “It’s not about me. This is about defending democracy,” Hearn said.