A 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoeist now faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly touching the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — the same pool that started falling apart days after a $14.7 million no-bid renovation ordered by President Trump. If that doesn't spell two-tier justice, nothing does.
David Hearn was indicted Thursday by a D.C. Superior Court grand jury on a felony charge of destruction of property valued at $1,000 or more. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced the charge at a press conference, claiming National Park Service employees saw Hearn "forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner" with both hands on June 19. Pirro said employees told Hearn to stop, and he shouted back, "It's not your pool" and "Why do you care so much?" according to the Daily Caller.
Hearn tells a very different story. He says he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride and stopped at the Lincoln Memorial to examine the already-peeling, algae-choked pool. He told NBC News he touched a detached piece of coating "to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating." He added: "The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there."
Here's what the establishment press won't emphasize: the pool was already a mess before Hearn showed up. The $14.7 million renovation — awarded through a no-bid contract to a company Trump said had done work on his golf clubs, according to The Guardian — was supposed to turn the water "American flag blue" in time for the nation's 250th birthday. Instead, an algae bloom turned it green, and photos showed the blue sealant peeling away in chunks. Trump claimed vandals cut a 300-foot "gash" through the liner but, weeks later, no photographs or video have been released to back that up. When pressed by NBC News, Pirro could not specify what condition the sealant was in at the spot where Hearn allegedly caused damage before he arrived.
Hearn's lawyers, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, didn't mince words: "These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration's effort to shift blame for their own failures."
They're right. The government hands a no-bid contract to a politically connected firm, the work fails almost immediately, and instead of answering for that failure, prosecutors haul a citizen before a grand jury and threaten him with a decade in prison. Chief Judge Milton C. Lee issued an arrest warrant with no bond listed, the Daily Caller reported. Meanwhile, violent repeat offenders walk out of D.C. courthouses every day.
Pirro insisted prosecutors have "tremendous evidence" and can prove the damage exceeds $1,000 — the threshold that turns a misdemeanor into a felony carrying up to 10 years and a $25,000 fine. She said an expert will testify at trial to the repair cost. She also conceded federal authorities don't believe Hearn used any tool — just his bare hands.
A 67-year-old man on a bike ride allegedly ripped government-issue sealant with his bare hands hard enough to cause $1,000 in damage, and for that, the full weight of the Justice Department is coming down on him. The question every American should be asking: if the feds will do this to an Olympian, what will they do to you?
