Rep. Jamie Raskin launches investigation into flawed reflecting pool case

Aug. 11 (UPI) — Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., launched an investigation Tuesday into the Trump administration’s prosecution of a former Olympian for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro brought the felony charges against David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool by “forcefully and violently” ripping up part of the pool floor, earlier this summer.

However, on Aug. 1, she requested the charges be dismissed, saying that new do***ents from the Department of the Interior showed the damage was instead caused by “hasty and botched work” by the contractor and that she was misled. On Thursday, a federal judge granted a dismissal.

Pirro initially said there was “tremendous evidence” that Hearn had caused more than $1,000 in damages to the pool. President Donald Trump has publicly criticized her for the decision to dismiss the charges, saying she “choked” and that she should “revisit her hastily made decision.” He maintains that vandals caused the damage.

Raskin sent letters to Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum requesting all communications between their offices and the White House, as well as all do***ents related to the case — including all evidence presented to the grand jury that indicted Hearn in early July.

In a statement, Raskin noted that court filings show that, despite Pirro’s blame of the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice also had its own evidence of the botched installation before indicting Hearn.

“How did this debacle happen?” Raskin wrote in the letters to Pirro and Burgum. “… Did the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. in fact maliciously prosecute an American citizen it knew to be innocent with a felony charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison? Did the U.S. Department of the Interior deliberately mislead prosecutors to cover up a ‘botched’ renovation by a company awarded a dubious $15 million insider no-bid contract?

“The conclusion seems inescapable that at least one, if not both, of you have misled the American public about the evidence and used it to corrupt and weaponize our justice system against an innocent 67-year-old American citizen.”

Raskin also noted that, in what he called a “jaw-dropping admission,” Interior Department officials wrote to the contractor as early as June 11, more than a week before Hearn was arrested, saying that the reflecting pool liner was already peeling.