David Hearn Files New Motion Urging Court to Stop ‘Prosecutorial Harassment’ by Trump DOJ in Reflecting Pool Case

Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn called the Department of Justices’ accusations that he vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “prosecutorial harassment” and is pushing in court to block further legal action against him.

Hearn, 67, was charged in June with a felony for destruction of government property filed by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, headed by Jeanine Pirro. He was facing up to 10 years in prison until prosecutors moved late last month to dismiss the case.

On Friday, Hearn’s attorney Norm Eisen announced they had filed a new motion highlighting President Donald Trump’s continued attacks on Hearn and urged the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the DOJ would be barred from further attempts to prosecute the Olympian.

Eisen, with the nonprofit Democracy Defenders Fund, has furiously denounced the targeting of Hearn as an “OUTRAGEOUS” attempt to “harass an innocent man.” Eisen is joined on the legal team by Mary Dohrmann with the Washington Litigation Group and Steve Levin from Steptoe LLC.

In the latest motion, Hearn’s defense attorneys excoriated the Trump administration for “continu[ing] to advance the narrative — contrary to the evidence and the filings of record in this case — that Mr. Hearn vandalized the Reflecting Pool.”

“Those public statements, together with reports that the Department of Justice is considering bringing new charges against Mr. Hearn, confirm that the risk of continued prosecutorial harassment is not speculative,” they added. “The record in this case demonstrates a substantial and specific risk that, if the indictment is dismissed without prejudice, Mr. Hearn will face renewed charges, however meritless, driven by political pressure rather than the evidence.”

The prosecution admitted it had relied on claims from the Department of the Interior that “the damage was caused entirely by vandals, including [Hearn],” but after the indictment, DOI then “provided additional documents” that revealed “the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI.”

However, Trump has continued to rage about the dismissal, publicly lambasting Pirro, falsely claiming there is “video” evidence of the vandalism being committed, and pushing the DOJ to try to charge Hearn again.

After the initial DOJ filing dismissing the case, Judge Todd Edelman of the District of Columbia Superior Court cancelled the trial that had been scheduled for late September and set a hearing on the issue of whether or not the dismissal should be with prejudice.

Several other people were arrested and charged with misdemeanor-level offenses for accusations they too had vandalized the Reflecting Pool.

Pirro’s office dismissed those cases as well earlier this month, but in the meantime, at least one of those defendants had lost his job and had to move out of his home because he could no longer afford the rent.

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