Add to the pile of the Trump Administration’s impeachable offenses the withholding of evidence in the criminal prosecution of an innocent man.
On Friday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss its Trumped-up charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn for “vandalizing” the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the T.V. star that T.V. star Trump appointed to prosecute his revenge cases in the nation’s capital, told the court that the case is refuted by documents that Trump’s Interior Department withheld until now:
Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing that additional documents provided by the Interior Department since the indictment of David Hearn show that the damage was the result of a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.” In addition, a recent visual inspection revealed damage throughout the pool, including in the middle — where prosecutors say a vandal would not likely have attempted to peel the lining.
…In court papers Friday, prosecutors said they had only recently received new information that undermined the basis for the prosecution.
“It was not until after these documents were produced that [prosecutors] first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented” by the Interior Department. Prosecutors could “only rely,” they wrote, on the initial information suggesting that vandals caused the damage [Eric Tucker, “Justice Department Moves to Drip Case Against Ex-Olympian Charged with Damaging Reflecting Pool,” AP, 2026.07.31].
Hearn’s lawyers say the feds knew from the start that the lining on the Reflecting Pool was peeling off before Hearn visited:
Earlier this week, Hearn’s lawyers sought access to grand jury transcripts because of what they said were “irregularities” in the process. They said a National Park Service official testified that the pool already was damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it, couldn’t quantify any damage attributable to Hearn and said the same repairs would have been required regardless of his conduct [Tucker, 2026.07.31].
Trump disagrees with Pirro’s filing and continues to peddle his butt-covering lie that Hearn and others vandalized the Reflecting Pool that Trump and his contractors messed up. Pirro may lose her job for contradicting Il Duce, but both Pirro and Trump should lose their jobs for arresting and charging an innocent man just to shift blame from the President for an embarrassing failure.
Related Corruption: Trump is threatening to revive the $1.776-billion “anti-weaponization fund” if the Senate won’t confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General. Funny: the prosecution of David Hearn is exactly the sort of political corruption of the Justice Department that an “anti-weaponization fund” would supposedly redress, but I don’t hear anyone in the Trump Administration saying Hearn should get a check from Uncle Sam.
Pretty obvious the charges should not have been brought for any reason. Pirro is a disastrous joke of a human, let alone lawyer. The felon/rapissed is way worse.
Slightly OT, but since this blog is mostly about happenings inside South Duhkota, I must ask, is the photo in this Alternet link,
https://www.alternet.org/trump-midterms-2677646067/
a photo of Marlboro Barbie at a sobriety checkpoint?
Most South Dakotans love the lying con man. They can’t help it.
I don’t understand why this isn’t a bigger news story. Trump made the Reflecting Pool and the subsequent “vandalism” a big issue. Now we know he’s made a mess of the pool and lied about what happened to it. It’s an easy story to grasp as opposed to many others that require nuance and the time and desire to learn about it.
WJL
Mark Anderson
“Most South Dakotans love the lying con man. They can’t help it.”
You wouldn’t think someone could be addicted to a person, but it happens. Addiction to trump doesn’t have an open door you can walk out of. To get over that kind of addiction, it takes an honest and very uncomfortable look at why you got started. Some of this started with right-wing propaganda coming from people like Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, etc. Then along came trump. For the past decade roughly 35%-40% of the American electorate have stayed with this ugly, 80-year-old baby no matter what because trump is an expert pusher. He sells them something they think they need to temporarily feel good about themselves and their tiny lives. He feeds all their worst habits. He speaks like they do. He gives them permission to be just as awful as they want to be and not feel a bit guilty about it. Trump has done nothing for anybody since being reelected except make himself and his family richer along with being the center of attention. He’s plastered his name all over Washington DC and turned our White House into a gold-infested nightmare.
It does indeed take courage to leave your trump/MAGA cult because leaving the comfort zone of your daily dose isn’t a comfortable choice. In the case of giving up trump, it means realizing you’ve been deceived, used, and gutted of your humanity. You can’t quit him now, because after a decade of this, you’re completely hooked. You feel like you couldn’t go back to whatever your life looked like 10 years ago even if you tried.
Until the disastrous 2016 election and then musk’s tampering with the catastrophic 2024 election, we now know that there are and always have been, many insecure, cruel, selfish people in our country (including the complacent fools who didn’t bother to get off their lazy asses to vote) who listened to & voted for a reality show media whore. It is hard to have hope for the trump unreachable to suddenly see but we need to keep trying to get people to speak up and VOTE because in the end, dictators, tyrants and their cult always fail.
They just can’t quit him, so we must defeat them.
Pinched myself hard and still can’t wake up from this nightmare.
Commentator David Pakman has advocated for making it acceptable and welcoming for people to change their mind. At the same time he says it’s important for people to acknowledge that all the signs were there to have made a better choice and to help prevent others from making a similar mistake on the future.
DOJ dropping charges against other alleged vandals, too.