A close read of the Reflecting Pool prosecution
The Reflecting Pool saga encapsulates so much about the politics of the moment: President Donald Trump’s fixation on local vanity projects over global economic and military crises; the cronyism that resulted in a no-bid contract to a shoddy vendor; the baseless blame-shifting from Trump and his sycophants when it all went to hell; and the concomitant glee from liberals, even if that meant rooting for algae to overrun a national monument.
It’s unsurprising and altogether fitting, then, that the indictment of David Hearn, former Olympian and alleged Reflecting Pool sealant-ripper, has taken on outsize political import. Now Hearn becomes a totem, either a miscreant or a martyr depending on whom you ask. While it’s too early to conclusively declare the case against Hearn an abomination — that requires assumptions about facts that simply aren’t known at this point — we’ve already seen indicia of prosecutorial excess, and he’ll likely emerge unscathed.
On Friday, District of Columbia U.S. Attorney (and day drunk) Jeanine Pirro called a press conference to announce Hearn’s indictment. The spittle flowed freely during a 15-minute tirade as Pirro linked the alleged ripping of the Reflecting Pool’s lining to broader societal “anarchy and chaos”; credited Trump for restoring (exactly) 22 fountains and leading D.C. to “a renaissance like it has never experienced before”; and declared that “I’m not gonna get into the evidence” — before she did exactly that.
Pirro didn’t offer every relevant detail, but she did outline her case against Hearn. Prosecutors claim that he deliberately “ripped a piece of recently installed sealant on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial.” He allegedly damaged two square feet of sealant by “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands.” (Yes, “violently.”) Pirro also wagged a finger at Hearn for his “belligerent, rude, and disrespectful” conduct toward National Park Service employees. (Bad manners are not, as of this writing, a federal crime.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/a-close-read-of-the-reflecting-pool-prosecution/ar-AA27sYIA
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