‘A True Embarrassment for Jeanine Pirro’: CNN’s Elie Honig Shreds Prosecutor After She Drops Case Against Former Olympian

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig called it “a true embarrassment for Jeanine Pirro” after the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia moved Friday to dismiss charges against the former Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, acknowledging the damage was caused by a “flawed installation.”

David Hearn has consistently denied vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, maintaining that he merely touched a section of material that was already peeling from the bottom of the pool, having pleaded not guilty earlier this month. His attorneys argued the government’s own evidence, mainly testimony from one National Park Service official, showed the damage predated his visit and failed to establish any repair costs attributable to his actions.

On Friday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, Honig said:

I think you could see the problems with this case right away. I wrote a piece for New York magazine, and I said on air that there were some reasons to doubt the validity of this case. I did not expect it to unravel so quickly. It’s a real embarrassment, first of all, for the United States’ Justice Department. Let’s remember — first, they arrest David Hearn, they charge him initially, by complaint, with a misdemeanor. Then, they upgrade it to a felony. They get a grand jury to indict him for that felony, and then Jeanine Pirro holds a press conference, where she’s pounding the podium and talking about what a serious crime this is and how justice will be done. And now, it turns out, they dismissed the case voluntarily.

And what DOJ is saying in the statement that we’ve received is that, “Well, we didn’t get the full information about the state of the pool from the Interior Department until after we charged.” But that’s no excuse at all. It’s your job as a prosecutor to get the relevant information first. You don’t charge first and then figure it out. You get the information first and then charge. So, it’s a true embarrassment for Jeanine Pirro. It’s a true embarrassment for DOJ, and they brought it on themselves.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.

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