Donald Trump’s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C. unloaded on a reporter who pressed her about the president’s demands to prosecute a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The case against 67-year-old David Hearn collapsed this summer after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped charges in a stunning court filing that appeared to blame the Trump administration’s own “botched” construction for damage to the monument.
Trump, however, has demanded that Pirro re-open the case while accusing her of having “folded like an umbrella” and “choking.” Her office agreed to dismiss the case but is asking a judge to leave open the possibility of retrying Hearn again.
During a press conference on cryptocurrency fraud on Wednesday, a reporter asked Pirro about Trump’s efforts to “revisit the reflecting pool case.”
“Ugh, why did I know that was coming? That’s why I didn’t call on you first,” Pirro fired back. “Well, first of all, I’m here to talk about one of the biggest problems that American people have right now. And I’m not going to talk about any other issue. I know you’d love to, but I’m not going there.”
open image in galleryThe reporter then noted that the case is important to Trump.
“The president has the right to decide what he wants to do and what is important,” Pirro shot back.
“And what he’s shown us already is that through the executive order, that this cryptocurrency fraud on Americans is a priority,” she added. “There is an executive order, and there is a focus with resources for us to do it.”
She then counted for the next question — “not on the pool.”
When a reporter tried again to bring up the case, Pirro lost her cool.
“No! No, and no!” she shouted.
“How many times do I have to say no?” Pirro said. “I am not talking about that. Anyone want to talk about this case?”
open image in galleryThe judge overseeing the case against Hearn appears prepared to block the Department of Justice from charging him again.
Prosecutors initially accused Hearn of tearing out the recently applied “American flag blue” liner that started to flap to the surface shortly after it was installed.
Just weeks after she publicly accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping out the liner, Pirro’s office admitted that the sealant started to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed. Contractors left behind “widespread damage,” according to her office.
It was not until after the indictment was filed that the Department of Interior determined that the “damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” according to her filing.
open image in galleryHearn has asked a judge to dismiss the case with prejudice, which would prevent prosecutors from reviving felony charges against him for the same alleged crime.
On Truth Social, Trump called Hearn’s attorney Norm Eisen a “Political Hack” and “TRUMP DERANGED SLEAZEBAG” as he pushed Pirro to “re-visit her hastily made decision” to drop the case.
The legal team behind Hearn — a champion canoeist who represented the U.S. at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics — has argued that Trump’s comments suggest the administration is trying to charge him again.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman hauled lawyers to court last week to hear why prosecutors would want to keep the door open after admitting there isn’t any evidence to do so.
If someone like Hearn can be charged for a crime they didn’t commit, “then every American is at risk,” Eisen told reporters outside the courthouse last Friday.
“Davey Hearn is innocent. He’s got nothing to do with the toxic contamination of the reflecting pool and the algae farm that is growing in it,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told reporters. “That is a problem with the Trump administration. They should deal with it without bringing my constituent into it.”