White House Presses DOJ to Revive Reflecting Pool Case

The White House has asked the Justice Department to weigh new charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial, according to a person familiar with the matter — an effort to revive a case President Trump has publicly complained about since one of his own appointees abandoned it.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, dropped the charges against David Hearn on July 31, blaming a contractor for a flawed installation. In a 20-page filing dismissing the case, Pirro's office said it had received evidence that damage to the pool occurred before Hearn visited it, and that "it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt."

Hearn has maintained that he reached into the water to touch a piece of lining that was already detached while he was on a bike ride in June.

Trump has publicly rebuked Pirro over the decision, saying she "choked."

The request went to officials at what is known inside the department as Main Justice, its Washington headquarters. It was not clear what the legal basis for new charges would be. The request was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Justice Department did not directly respond when asked whether it was considering new charges. "The Department of Justice follows the evidence when determining if crimes have been committed. We always evaluate any case based on the facts and the law," a spokesperson said in an email.

Such a request is itself extraordinary. The department traditionally operates at arm's length from the White House on charging decisions to avoid the appearance of political interference.

The White House also did not directly address whether it made the request. A spokesperson referred questions to the Justice Department and sent links to two recent Trump posts on Truth Social urging Pirro to reconsider and suggesting there was evidence against Hearn.

Hearn's lawyers, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin, called the reported request "another bizarre turn."

"If true, it would mark a shocking first: a case that the DoJ lost by its own admission because it lacked the evidence to convict returning from the dead," they said in a statement, adding that it would "further harass an innocent man."

Attorney General Todd Blanche, recently confirmed by the Senate, praised Pirro but equivocated last week when asked about the dismissal. "I don't approve or disapprove decisions that our US attorneys make in a general matter, but I'm not going to talk about what we knew about the case or didn't know about the case," he said. "Hypothetically, if the president chose to fire a United States attorney, it turns out he's allowed to do that because he's the president of the United States."