On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the felony charges against David Hearn for vandalizing the newly renovated reflecting pool in Washington, DC.
I previously addressed the problems with the reflecting pool renovation and subsequent arrests for alleged vandalism. In essence, President Donald Trump made it a priority to renovate the reflecting pool, which had been plagued by serious leaking and algae issues for decades. He wanted it done in time for July 4th, and he also wanted it painted blue. Of course, Trump skirted normal rules and procedures to hire an underqualified person with which he had a prior relationship using a sketchy no-bid contract. While Trump bragged about the speed and low cost of the work, it went well over budget, the new blue lining began to separate from the pool's floor, and it was plagued by more algae problems.
It probably did not help that Trump and his entourage held a small vehicle parade on the newly renovated pool surface.
Instead of admitting that the project was rushed and otherwise bungled, Trump claimed both that the new surface was grand and knife-proof and that nefarious, anti-American criminals had vandalized the surface by cutting 100+ yard gashes in it.
The federal government soon arrested former American Olympian David Hearn for vandalizing the pool. Hearn asserted that he had merely been touching a big piece of the blue pool coating that had come loose.
Despite there being no evidence that Hearn or anyone had vandalized the pool, Jeanine Pirro, Trump crony and the US Attorney for Washington backed up what Trump said,
Earlier this month, Ms. Pirro herself had echoed the president’s claims, calling a news conference to announce Mr. Hearn’s indictment on July 2. She said that she had “tremendous evidence” that Mr. Hearn had committed a felony, and noted that he faced up to 10 years in prison.
Now, Pirro is singing a different tune. In the motion to dismiss the charges against Hearn she submitted to court, she said,
However, it was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026. It was not until after these documents were produced that USAO-DC first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI. Indeed, USAO-DC could only rely (on the information provided by DOI that the damage was entirely caused by vandals, including the defendant in this case, David Hearn,
In essence, Pirro a sycophantic, political Trump appointee formally and publicly admitted that the reflecting pool project was botched and blamed the US Department of Interior for withholding evidence from her office and baselessly blaming the alleged vandal(s).
How embarrassing. If the president had the ability to feel shame and embarrassment, this would be a tough one to swallow and might lead him to some silent introspection. Instead, predictably, Trump did not take Pirro's actions well. He lashed out and doubled down.
Trump may even be considering firing Pirro over the matter.
“Frankly, I think she choked, because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said during an unrelated Oval Office event Monday.
“I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed in Jeanine Pirro,” he added. “She folded like an umbrella.”
This is just another example of how (nearly all of) the President's devoted and pathetic sycophants will eventually come to a point that they flinch at carrying out the President's illegal, unethical, politically-motivated, and/or embarrassing desires. Trump will immediately forget their prior history of unquestioning loyalty and turn on them. It would be worthy of our pity and sympathy if these degenerates had not sold out their values and country in the interest of personal ambition and power.
Perhaps some nascent sense of ethics from Pirro's time as a judge and prosecutor in the 90's and early 2000's, long since buried below tons of self-interested, partisan programming, re-activated just enough to jar her back to reality, although I would not count on it. What I suspect happened here is that Pirro realized she could not proceed with such a bogus prosecution without risking professional and legal sanctions from the court and state and district bar organizations. After all, despite having been a Fox News personality for decades, she is still a lawyer subject to oversight and regulation beyond the president's reach. In other words, it was self-interest and preservation that made her move to dismiss the charges, not an ethical awakening.
It should not have been a surprise to Pirro that the president would one day put her in the untenable position of having to balance her duties as an attorney and officer of the court with her desire to advance her career by acting as a political hitman for her boss. Yet, she could not resist the siren song of power and prestige.
As everyone who works for Trump eventually finds out, he will always ask you to go one step further in acting unethically and undercutting the values on which this country was founded. And when finally you can swallow down no more filth or need to prioritize your own career and freedom, Trump will turn on you and discard you no matter how blindly loyal you have been and how many ethical compromises you have made to please him.