‘OUTRAGEOUS!’ David Hearn’s Attorney Furiously Blasts Report White House Wants to Charge Him Again

Sarah RumpfAug 11th, 2026, 3:44 pm
 
Reflecting Pool

Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

Norm Eisen, one of the attorneys representing former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, furiously blasted the news that the White House was seeking to get the Department of Justice to bring new charges against his client.

Hearn was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and facing a felony charge for destruction of government property filed by U.S. Attorney Office for the District of Columbia, headed by Jeanine Pirro. He was facing up to ten years in prison until prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice at the end of last month.

In the motion, 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.”

In addition to dropping the felony charge against Hearn, Pirro’s office moved to dismiss three other misdemeanor cases charging people with similar accusations of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.

However, Trump has continued to rage about the dismissal of the cases, publicly lambasting Pirro and falsely claiming there is “video” evidence of the vandalism being committed. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House is now asking the DOJ to try to charge Hearn again.

Eisen reacted with unsurprising fury, dropping an all-caps “OUTRAGEOUS!” at the idea of “[b]ringing back a case that the DOJ lost by its own admission that it lacked evidence to convict.”

This had been a “sad chapter in the DOJ’s history” that was now taking “another bizarre turn” to “further harass an innocent man,” he added, vowing that he and the rest of Hearn’s legal team would fight any effort to prosecute their client again.

In a later tweet, Eisen cheered efforts by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) to investigate Hearn’s prosecution. As The Washington Post reported Tuesday, Raskin and other House Democrats have sent letters to the DOJ and DOI seeking records on the case, including if prosecutors were duped to bring charges to cover up a “botched” renovation job.

The current status of the prosecution against Hearn is that the case has been officially dismissed by the court, with the parties set to appear at a hearing next month regarding whether or not the dismissal should be without prejudice, meaning Hearn can legally be charged again, or with prejudice.

In a scathing motion, seeking a dismissal with prejudice, Eisen and the rest of Hearn’s legal team sharply denounced the case as a “politically motivated prosecution” of their client that was “motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support,” and argued that the “risk of harassment and bad faith” was very real, the attorneys continued, because of how Trump and other administration officials had “publicly attacked” the dismissal of the case and the DOJ “has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts.”

This latest news about the White House pressuring DOJ to bring new charges will undoubtedly be included in the arguments presented by Hearn’s attorneys.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.