{"id":8793,"date":"2026-08-07T07:05:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8793"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:05:59","slug":"judge-officially-tosses-case-accusing-ex-olympian-of-criminally-vandalizing-reflecting-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8793","title":{"rendered":"Judge officially tosses case accusing ex-Olympian of criminally vandalizing Reflecting Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A judge on Thursday officially tossed out a case the Justice Department brought against former Olympian David Hearn, whom they had accused of feloniously vandalizing the Reflecting Pool earlier this summer.\n <\/p>

Read more DOGE claims of saving $110 billion are incorrect and unreliable, watchdog says<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Judge Todd Edelman stopped short of barring prosecutors in Washington, DC, from being able to revive the same case against Hearn in the future, as his attorneys had asked. The judge asked for more arguments over that request before he made a decision on it.\n <\/p>\n

\n The formal dismissal comes nearly a week after prosecutors in the US Attorney\u2019s Office in DC acknowledged in a court filing that President Donald Trump\u2019s $14 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool was \u201chasty and botched\u201d and that there wasn\u2019t evidence to support their assertion that Hearn had criminally damaged it.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDavey Hearn is innocent and today\u2019s dismissal reflects that simple fact. But this case never should\u2019ve been brought in the first place. The Department of Justice\u2019s decision to seek an indictment was a miscarriage of justice,\u201d lawyers for Hearn said in a statement on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

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3x-Olympian: Being charged with damaging Reflecting Pool doesn’t feel like “the land of the free and the home of the brave”\n <\/div>\n
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3x-Olympian: Being charged with damaging Reflecting Pool doesn’t feel like “the land of the free and the home of the brave”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n The stunning about-face from the Justice Department last Friday angered Trump, who lashed out both publicly and privately at US Attorney Jeanine Pirro for rescinding the case. But the president did not fire Pirro, one of his most loyal allies, or ask for her resignation during a meeting at the White House on Monday, CNN has reported.\n <\/p>

Read more McConnell says he\u2019s been discharged from rehab center and will continue recovery at home<\/a><\/p>\n

\n In admitting the case was flawed, Pirro\u2019s office asked Edelman to dismiss the case \u201cwithout prejudice,\u201d meaning they would be able to pursue it again in the future if they wanted to. Hearn\u2019s lawyers similarly asked for the case to be dropped, but urged the court to go one step further.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBoth parties thus agree that the case against Mr. Hearn should be dismissed; they disagree as to the nature of that dismissal,\u201d Edelman wrote in a brief order Thursday evening. \u201cGiven the positions of the parties, the court discerns no reason why this felony case should remain pending against Mr. Hearn while the parties litigate, and the court resolves, the remaining legal issues.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hearn\u2019s lawyers told the judge on Tuesday that they were concerned the case could be brought again given Trump\u2019s frustration over how it was handled.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRather than bringing the matter to a close, the dismissal has become the subject of an ongoing apparent public disagreement within the Executive Branch itself,\u201d they told him in court papers. \u201cThe government\u2019s decision to dismiss has not eliminated the possibility that Mr. Hearn could again become the target of prosecution should political pressure yet again prevail over the facts and the evidence now reflected in the government\u2019s motion to dismiss.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more Trump grows angry over reports on depleted munitions \u2014 believing it weakens him in Iran negotiations<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A judge on Thursday officially tossed out a case the Justice Department brought against former Olympian David Hearn, whom they had accused of feloniously vandalizing the Reflecting Pool earlier this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge officially tosses case accusing ex-Olympian of criminally vandalizing Reflecting Pool - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge officially tosses case accusing ex-Olympian of criminally vandalizing Reflecting Pool - 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