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Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have indicated that they are readying an investigation into the Trump administration’s decision to charge former Olympian David Hearn with alleged acts of vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
The New Republic’s Greg Sargent reported on the plan on Monday. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, divulged the idea to Sargent.
“Judiciary Democrats will investigate who lied, who buried the evidence, and who decided to threaten an American citizen with prison simply to protect Trump’s wounded feelings and continuing corruption,” Raskin said. “Participants in this frame-up will be held to account.”
Earlier this summer, Hearn was biking near the pool when he stopped to dip his hand in, as reports of the pool being damaged after chemicals were sprayed into the water to address a growing algae problem were making national headlines. After touching a piece of blue material that came off the bottom of the pool, he was arrested by National Park Service (NPS) officials, and later charged with felony level vandalism.
However, on July 31, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped charges against Hearn. Per her office, documents obtained from within the Interior Department — which, publicly, was echoing President Donald Trump’s claims of vandals damaging the pool — indicated that the damage was likely caused by the company hired to renovate the pool.
Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, told Sargent that it was always obvious that his client didn’t cause the damage.
“The notion that they did not know that there was a botched, rushed renovation of the Reflecting Pool does not hold water,” Eisen said.
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Raskin’s push to open an investigation into the decision to charge Hearn will include requests for interdepartmental communications within the Trump administration. As the minority party in Congress, Democratic lawmakers’ investigation may be limited, depending on whether they can compel the administration to cooperate. But the decision to look into the matter may indicate how Democrats plan to act should they win Congress in the midterms, thus gaining subpoena powers come January.
Even though the case against Hearn has been dropped, Trump has nonetheless continued to hammer the idea that Hearn and others were responsible for damage to the reflecting pool, claiming in a Truth Social post on Sunday that an employee of the National Park Service witnessed Hearn “rip” the blue coating from the pool.
No other evidence exists to demonstrate that this is true, and within that post, Trump admitted there “was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening,” though he maintained that most of the damage was due to vandalism.
Notably, Trump’s “vandalism” claims contradict previous statements he has made regarding the renovation project. In May, for example, Trump boasted that the blue lining at the bottom of the reflecting pool was “so strong” and “so powerful” that it would last 50 years and could not be cut with a knife.
In response to Trump’s post on Sunday, Eisen issued a statement saying that his team would continue to monitor the president’s words and may even seek action against him if he continues to go after Hearn.
“The government is continuing to attack an innocent man. … We are reviewing all legal remedies, including for this continued harassment,” Eisen said. “It is outrageous.”
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