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The saga of the reflecting pool? Of course you do. How Trump's American flag blue swimming pool liner started falling apart days after it was installed, awarded a no big contract, and then the whole thing turned green. And then how Trump, in the most embarrassing performance of his second term, which is a crowded field, tried to blame it on vandals and saboteurs.
"We have a, I think, 290, 300-foot slit right through it, probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. They cut it up with a box knife and tried to destroy it, and it's in great shape now. They're terrible, the vandals. They took a cutter, a box cutter or something very sharp. And can you imagine what do these people come up with this? And they cut, and then they started ripping it up. You know why? Because they're sick people."
Now, as obvious as it was that it wasn't vandals who screwed up the reflecting pool, we all knew that. Trump's people began arresting tourists and people like former Olympic athlete David Hearn for touching the water in the pool and accusing them of cutting or otherwise damaging the ill-planned rubberized pool coating that was peeling for all I think it's all to see. In fact, we interviewed Mr. David Hearn and his lawyer here on this program less than two weeks before Trump's hand-picked U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, announced a federal felony charge against him.
"The evidence shows, and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool." Let me just repeat that in case you missed it: "The evidence shows, and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool."
Well, tonight, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss that indictment against him, just one week before they were set to face the judge overseeing the case in the hearing. In tonight's truly shocking, amazing 20-page filing, prosecutors in Janine Pirro's office say the government received new evidence indicating that, and we quote here, "damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor." Quote, "A rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor, led to the damage of the lining of the reflecting pool."
Harry Lippman is a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice, a former U.S. attorney. He's host of the Talking Feds podcast, author of the Talking Feds Substack, and he joins me now. Well, Harry, in a lawyer's career, there are Ls and then there are Ls. And I've got to say, as big an L, I mean, can you, can you imagine ever? I mean, you ran a U.S. attorney's office. You were in Main Justice. I mean, is this as bad and embarrassing a screw-up as you've ever seen?
You know, you've—I think it is exactly that. It's not simply that they stumbled in, but this was the most perfectly, you could, I would say, Kafka-esque prosecution ever. This guy was just made to order talking point. He had no connection with Trump at all, wasn't a political enemy or anything, and he was served up for that. You mentioned I was a U.S. attorney. You're not allowed. She had already acted improperly by saying the things she said, even had they—that has been true, just the things outside the indictment which were prejudicial. They now look to have been patently false. And what, what the hell, the Department of Interior? They've now learned this from? How do you possibly bring these charges without maybe calling the federal agency that has responsibility here and saying, do you have any evidence? This was the sort of nadir, I really do think, of the whole department under Trump. It's saying a lot, but it was abjectly corrupt because this guy was just served up to further a Trump talking point that was a lie from the start.
I mean, you know, we're laughing now. They were going to try to put this guy in jail for 10 years, in prison for 10 years, okay? Like that was what they were going for, just to remind everyone. And you just mentioned the Department of Interior. One of the things that is so insane about this filing is they do this 180, and then Pirro just goes so hard at the Department of Interior like she got screwed and lied to by them. Here, I'll quote: "DOI, Department of Interior provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case. Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment." But again, you don't get off the hook. You brought the charges. 100%. They said, and she said, we can prove these beyond a reasonable doubt. And she said, we have witnesses who saw him pull the whole thing up and, you know, go down there and totally damage it. And there's more to it. A total debacle, true. But worse than that, a total injustice. And I think they had to now. They were forced because Hearn had filed a motion that made it clear this $1,000 worth of damage, they just put it in in order to make this a felony, but they had no evidence before the grand jury. How the hell did they get the grand jury, who grand jurors had asked about this, to vote these charges? That's an ugly thing. They get to now avoid, big time, her statements and her improper conduct. So really, yes, a circus, kind of funny, but not so funny for David Hearn, as you point out, looking at 10 years in jail. And just so perfectly Kafka-esque, I've got to say. This is a guy who was just thrown into a nightmare out of the blue for no reason, 56-year-old guy, Olympian, no reason to think he's got the big money to be able to defend himself. This was abject, nasty, complete exploitation of an innocent.
He was a very amazing man. Shout out to Norm Eisen, who was on the program with him, his lawyer, and did some good lawyering here. Yes, he did. There was also, I think this is a little like, it's similar, I think, to the Comey case where there really is something totalitarian about being told a lie from the leader that everyone knows is a lie. We all know it's a lie. We know that no one went in there with a box cutter and ripped it up. We know it was poorly installed. And then forcing everyone to go and repeat the lie to all of us, to the point of prosecution. Here is Doug Burgum on a Sunday morning show. Watch him do this. Watch the totalitarian repetition of the lie in front of everyone. Take a lesson.
"And you're 100 percent sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism? You can prove it."
"Well, yeah, absolutely we can. And as we drain it, we've got all the photographs we can see. I mean, there's no possible way."
"Photographs of a person or people cutting a 300 to 350-foot gash in the bottom of the reflecting pool?"
"Dana, I'm not sure why you and others in the media think that you want to keep trying to question."
"Well, the reason that we want to keep asking, Doug, is because we think you're lying, which is proven in a federal court filing in court, Harry."
Exactly. And look, it's one thing, Chris, that they lie to all the American people. They do this again and again. But I'm sorry, the most serious governmental power is the power to deprive somebody of liberty. And just to further this, to make it look a little better. Here's a guy, here you go, and we've got the evidence, and you're in big trouble. It is really nauseating.
Harry Lippman, who I always enjoy talking to, we'll have you back next time because we didn't even get to the sludge fund, which, by the way, is not dead and will be alive next week, I'm fairly certain, because I want to talk about that. Harry Lippman, great to see you. Thanks, Chris.