A judge has dismissed with prejudice the government's vandalism charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn. That means federal prosecutors cannot refile them in the future, despite President Trump's public demands to do so.
In fact, as D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman explained in a 26-page ruling released Thursday, the case should be permanently closed in large part because of the "political pressure brought by the President of the United States upon his subordinate officers."
"While the prosecutors admit that the evidence indicates that he committed no crime, the President's statements create a risk that Mr. Hearn will be prosecuted nonetheless, either because the current United States Attorney and her assistants will eventually yield to his public pressure campaign or because the President will replace them with prosecutors more likely to carry out his wishes," wrote Edelman, an Obama appointee.
Hearn, 67, was arrested at the Reflecting Pool in June, around the time its multimillion-dollar new blue lining started noticeably peeling off in chunks. He was charged with one felony count of property destruction and quickly indicted by a grand jury, though he pleaded not guilty.
In late July, however, with a trial start date — and the prospect of up to 10 years in prison if convicted — looming, Pirro's office abruptly asked the judge to drop the charges against Hearn and three others altogether.
Citing new reports from the Department of the Interior and National Park Service, federal prosecutors admitted that the Reflecting Pool damage was, in fact, "the result of botched installation and not vandalism."
Trump disagreed, and publicly urged Pirro to revisit the case — which Thursday's ruling prevents.
When asked for comment, the White House referred NPR to three of Trump's Truth Social posts from August, blaming the Reflecting Pool damage on vandals and disagreeing with U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro's decision to drop charges against Hearn in the first place.
Neither the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. nor the Department of Justice returned NPR's requests for comment in time for publication.
Hearn's lawyers — Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, Steve Levin and Michael Bromwich — celebrated the ruling in a joint statement, calling it "a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice."
"This case never should have been brought in the first place," they said. "This was a miscarriage of justice, and what happened to Mr. Hearn is an outrage that should shock every American."
The soft-spoken Maryland resident quickly became a cause célèbre for the many Americans captivated by the Reflecting Pool saga, which some saw as a referendum on the Trump administration itself.
In an August interview with NPR, Hearn described his experience as "Kafkaesque" and "Orwellian," but said he was buoyed by the support he'd received from within and beyond his community.
"With the power of the law, the power of the courts, and my wonderful team, I feel very well equipped … to bring democracy back to me," he said.
Trump's public pressure campaign
Trump railed against Pirro in the days and weeks after she dropped the charges, saying she had "choked" and "folded like an umbrella" — and didn't rule out firing her. He continued to blame the damage on vandalism and wrote on social media that anyone who disagreed "should go back to Law School."
"Most concerningly," Edelman wrote, during that time, the president also leveled increasingly personal attacks against Hearn and his legal team.
"U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision, especially since it turned out that the 'gentleman' involved is a big player in ActBlue, a disgraceful fundraising SCAM, and is represented by a TRUMP DERANGED SLEAZEBAG, Political Hack Lawyer, Norm Eisen," Trump wrote in early August, in one of the social media posts the White House directed NPR to on Thursday.
It's against that backdrop that Hearn's legal team has been lobbying the judge to dismiss the charges with prejudice, to prevent the same case from being revived. The Trump administration, on the other hand, sought to leave that door open.
Edelman's Thursday ruling offers a peek into the government's argument — and then dismantles it.
Edelman wrote that when asked in court what kind of hypothetical new evidence might prompt prosecutors to revisit the case, an unnamed assistant U.S. attorney "waxed philosophical, musing, 'I don't know what the future may bring. None of us do.'"
He says prosecutors could not provide any specific examples of such evidence, and "admitted that the government was no longer even investigating the case."
"Given its own description of the existing evidence and the circumstances of this case, the development of contrary evidence seems practically inconceivable, and the possibility of a future meritorious prosecution strikes the Court as fanciful," Edelman concluded.
Hearn's lawyers say Thursday's ruling allows him "to move forward with his life as he deserves."
The Reflecting Pool, which was drained after July 4th, remains empty and fenced off for repairs, with no public timeline for completion.
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