JUST IN: Judge Bars Trump DOJ From Ever Reviving Reflecting Pool Case Against Ex-Olympian

Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

A judge dismissed the Trump administration’s prosecution of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on Thursday, permanently barring the Justice Department from reviving the vandalism case.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman threw out the indictment with prejudice, closing the door on any attempt to recharge Hearn over alleged damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The ruling came after the Justice Department sought to have the case dismissed without prejudice, which would have allowed prosecutors to potentially bring the charges again.

“The government recognized its prosecution lacked merit because ‘no crime had occurred,’” Edelman wrote in his order, according to an excerpt shared by Hearn attorney Norm Eisen.

Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, was indicted after being accused of damaging the newly renovated pool liner. D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro publicly announced the charges in July. Hearn had been charged with felony destruction of property, an offense carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1,000 fine. He pleaded not guilty at the time.

However, prosecutors then moved to abandon the case weeks later after receiving additional information from the Interior Department showing the widespread damage to the pool resulted from “flawed installation by the contractor.” The government said it would not have sought an indictment had that information been provided earlier.

President Donald Trump later criticized Pirro’s decision to drop the case, writing that he disagreed “100%” and insisting: “To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”

Hearn’s attorneys pressed Edelman to make the dismissal permanent, arguing the original case had been “motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support” and warning that leaving it open could expose Hearn to “harassment and bad faith.”

At a September hearing, Edelman questioned why prosecutors wanted to preserve their ability to recharge Hearn when the government was no longer investigating him and had conceded its case lacked a factual basis, ending that possibility with Thursday’s ruling.

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