The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is launching a probe into the Trump administration over its now-dismissed prosecution of an Olympian accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In a letter sent to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., demanded documents related to the decision to prosecute Olympic canoeist David Hearn, the evidence presented to the grand jury and all communication between the Justice Department, the White House and the Department of the Interior.
“DOJ’s abrupt abandonment of its prosecution, paired with President Trump’s and Secretary Burgum’s decision to circle the wagons around their debunked and ridiculous conspiracy theories, raise a host of profoundly troubling questions,” Raskin wrote.
Pirro dismissed the case in late July, admitting in a legal filing that the damage was caused by a “botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI.”
The former Olympian had pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of destruction of property after his arrest in June. And if he were convicted of the crime, Hearn could have faced up to 10 years in prison.
Despite dropping the charges, President Donald Trump has mounted pressure on Pirro to revive the criminal case, writing in a Truth Social post on Friday that she “should re-visit her hastily made decision.”
In his letter, Raskin questions whether the DOJ pursued charges that it knew were false — and whether Trump or his administration pressured officials to prosecute Hearn.
“Did DOJ prosecutors knowingly bring a bogus indictment? Did DOI withhold key evidence to blame the disastrous pool renovation on an innocent man? Did President Trump pressure or influence either Department to retaliate against and scapegoat an American citizen?” Raskin asked.
He continued, “At minimum, it appears that members of the Trump Administration were ready and willing to imprison an innocent American for a decade in a desperate effort to soothe an ex-landlord’s wounded ego about a terrible paint job and wasteful contract.”
Raskin requested transcribed interviews with the individuals whose testimony prosecutors used to secure the indictment against Hearn, naming the individuals identified in grand jury materials as “M.F.” and “M.R.” And Raskin said the Trump administration may have withheld information that was “exculpatory” for Hearn.
He noted that Interior officials wrote to the contractor who repainted the Reflecting Pool as early as June 11 — more than a week before Hearn’s arrest — complaining that the pool liner was already peeling. But the DOJ did not “turn over this key email to prosecutors until after Mr. Hearn was indicted.”
Pirro and Burgum are not legally compelled to respond, since Democrats don’t have subpoena power as the minority party. But the letter could be an indication of a future investigation that Raskin would oversee if Democrats won back the majority in November.
“We must get to the bottom of these murky waters to rid our justice system of any and all residual contamination,” Raskin said.
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