# Reflecting Pool case against David Hearn dropped **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 1, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087 "2026-08-01T20:14:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/1 "2026-08-01T20:14:19Z")
Jeanine Pirro has filed to drop felony vandalism charges against David Hearn. She says that the Dept. of the Interior withheld information from Justice until after the charges had been filed. However, she goes farther, saying that not only is Hearn not guilty, but that there was no vandalism and the failures in the Reflecting Pool lining were due to botched installation – thus throwing Trump under the bus as well. It’s welcome news, but I find it baffling. Why would she do that? It’s possible that she just realized it was the right thing to do. Yeah, I don’t believe that at all. The best I can come up with is that she saw the case unravelling and wanted to spin blame onto someone else. It still seems a tactical error. Trump doesn’t have a great history with his female appointees who make him look bad. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/2 "2026-08-01T20:21:54Z")
IANAL but I think in order to file the charges, someone has to swear or attest that they believe the truth of the charges against David Hearn. Neither she nor anyone else in the DOJ was willing to do so even though Trump himself was willing to make all sorts of bullshit accusations. They talked about the dropping of the charges on NPR yesterday afternoon and someone pointed out that the Trump administration almost always tells the truth in legal filings. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/3 "2026-08-01T20:45:44Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > wanted to spin blame onto someone else. What I found odd is that she spun (at last some of) that blame onto Trump and his rush job on the pool. I’m guessing she’ll be out of a job in the next week or two. And this quote from really shows how his brain works “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM”. He wants someone thrown in jail because, to him, it was vandalism. It doesn’t matter what the facts say, it just matters what he think about something. Everything he says, he fully expects to be true because he says it. Unfortunately, all his underlings make that happen often enough that I don’t think he even understands how much he gets away with. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/4 "2026-08-01T20:49:18Z")
I’ve posted this elsewhere, but will post it again here, both because I think it’s OT for P&E _and_ because I’m not sure there IS anything more relevant (and important to understand about Trump): > **[Trump isn’t lying, he’s bullshitting – and it’s far more dangerous](https://theconversation.com/trump-isnt-lying-hes-bullshitting-and-its-far-more-dangerous-71932)** > > Inflating his own grand persona is Trump’s sole goal, and he doesn’t care whether or not you believe him. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/5 "2026-08-01T21:52:54Z")
Trump didn’t like her dropping the charges, saying, “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS! President DJT” Of course he wasn’t the one signing a legal document making those claims. > **[Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117021210137447022)** > > I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/6 "2026-08-01T21:59:24Z")
And what connection does David Hearn have to any of this? Did he make a video pointing out the problem, or something? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/7 "2026-08-01T22:00:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Of course he wasn’t the one signing a legal document making those claims. Yep. And he’s not the one risking—well, anything, given the fact that Roberts’ Court has his back. Meanwhile Pirro and everyone working for her would be risking disbarment at the very least, if they swear or attest that they believe the charges are true. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > He wants someone thrown in jail because, to him, it was vandalism. Well, it _ **was** _ vandalism, or at least the ‘_motorcade driving over the just-laid surface_’ could be argued to be such. (Obviously nothing David Hearn did could reasonably be argued to have been vandalism.) It’s also obvious to most that the no-bid contract was fulfilled by a company that either didn’t know what it was doing, or didn’t care. And there’s no one to blame for that but Donald himself. Altogether a Friday night news dump was probably inevitable for this story. And only Donald’s core 20% or so (the percentage of Americans who are dedicated white supremacists) will think there’s any merit to his whining about the case being dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/8 "2026-08-01T22:01:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And what connection does David Hearn have to any of this? Did he make a video pointing out the problem, or something? His crime was to touch a piece of the floating coating. (To be fair, I believe a security guard nearby warned him not to do so.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/9 "2026-08-01T22:12:03Z")
Trump _originally_ promised that the work on the reflecting pool would cost $1.8 million but then the cost increased for some reason to $13.1 million, for a no-bid contract. And now the administration admits that it was a shoddy job. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/10 "2026-08-01T22:45:41Z")
withdrawn, addressed to wrong poster ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/11 "2026-08-01T22:48:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Meanwhile Pirro and everyone working for her would be risking disbarment at the very least, if they swear or attest that they believe the charges are true. Did someone from the Department of Justice have to attest the charges are true, in front of the Grand Jury, in order to get the indictment? I thought this from [Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/31/doj-reflecting-pool-damage-botched-installation-not-vandalism-01021291) was interesting: > [@](#): > > U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro . . . > > . . . her office blamed the Interior Department for failing to share information about the status of that work . . . > > “Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” the filing stated. . . . > > Notably, the motion accuses the Interior Department of failing to provide sufficient information prior to charges being filed against Hearn. That information, the filing states, was only shared after the Attorney’s Office reached out to the department “dozens and dozens of times.” If the Interior information was so important, that they would ask for it dozens and dozens or times, was there an obligation to wait for it before asking the Grand Jury to indict? (This is a real question – I have no idea what the answer is.) As for disbarment, is this a real risk under the Trump administration? Would the D.C. Bar really do this? Or is Pirro more realistically afraid of what could happen post-Trump? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/12 "2026-08-01T22:54:05Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Did someone from the Department of Justice have to attest the charges are true, in front of the Grand Jury, in order to get the indictment? Again, IANAL but from [here](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/indictment) > Rule 7 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides a list of minimum information that an indictment must contain and that follows for most states: > > “Plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged.” > Suspect’s identity. Unless the suspect identity is unknown (see Rule 7 (c)(1)). > “For purposes of an indictment referred to in section 3282 of title 18, United States Code, for which the identity of the defendant is unknown, it shall be sufficient for the indictment to describe the defendant as an individual whose name is unknown, but who has a particular DNA profile, as that term is defined in section 3282.” > Citation of the statute or regulation that was allegedly violated. > Signature from a government attorney. That last bit, that a government attorney is required to sign the indictment, is the one that I think exposes someone to penalties if the charges are bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/13 "2026-08-01T23:17:58Z")
I was wanting to see a reenactment of Hearn reaching into the pool with both hands, like she claimed. He would have had to be lying on his stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/14 "2026-08-01T23:23:37Z")
And now Burgum (sec interior) and Pirro are engaged in a cat fight over who fucked this whole thing up. And Trump is doubling down on accusing innocent people of being vandals/terrorists. I’d like to see a cage match on the Whitehouse lawn featuring Burgum and Pirro. “Match of the Century folks! Two douchbags enter! Nobody leaves!” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/15 "2026-08-01T23:55:08Z")
I watched the “video proof” he posted. What does he think it’s showing? There appears to be a number of workers scrubbing the pool. Is that what he thinks caused the “vandalism”? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/16 "2026-08-02T00:20:24Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > As for disbarment, is this a real risk under the Trump administration? Would the D.C. Bar really do this? I may be misunderstanding your question but yes, disbarment could be a real thing. Trump doesn’t figure into it since he has no control over any of the bar associations, including those in DC. Both Giuliani and John Eastman have been disbarred for BS they pulled in 2020. Pretty sure some of the other lawyers have faced sanctions or some type of discipline. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/17 "2026-08-02T00:50:46Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I may be misunderstanding your question but yes, disbarment could be a real thing. Trump doesn’t figure into it since he has no control over any of the bar associations, including those in DC. Both Giuliani and John Eastman have been disbarred for BS they pulled in 2020. Pretty sure some of the other lawyers have faced sanctions or some type of discipline. Trump does not have control, but I also think anticipatory compliance is real. Giuliani was disbarred in the Biden administration. Eastman seems a good example for your point. That was the California bar. I looked to see if the D.,C. bar has disciplined any Trumpy lawyer during Trump 47, and can not find it. I did find one and only one case in progress: [In re Edward R. Martin, Jr.](https://districtofcolumbiabar.sharepoint.com/sites/BPRCaseManager/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FBPRCaseManager%2FShared%20Documents%2FCases%20of%20Public%20Interest%2FIn%20re%20Edward%20R%2E%20Martin%2C%20Jr%2E%2C%20Board%20Docket%20No%2E%2026%2DBD%2D013&viewid=5ee3a11b%2Dd3d1%2D4c4d%2D86cf%2D695ef1f9747b&p=true&ga=1) I have to think that Pirro dropping the case increases her level of safety. No? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/18 "2026-08-02T02:36:35Z")
Safety from being brought before the bar but almost certainly not safety from getting shitcanned by DJT in the next couple of weeks. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/19 "2026-08-02T02:49:17Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > almost certainly not safety from getting shitcanned by DJT in the next couple of weeks. It will be interesting. Anyone with at least 10% of a functioning brain and not infested by dementia and not pathologically vindictive would just let it go. Will the Orange Peril let it go? Let’s wait and find out! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087/20 "2026-08-02T03:37:46Z")
What about all the others? Trump, or Pirro, or whoever, have been saying all along that they are charging 6 or 7 others of vandalism too and have arrested 2 or 3 of them. But I haven’t seen or heard a word of their names or any other details. Are all those charges being dropped too? Did they ever exist to begin with? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reflecting-pool-case-against-david-hearn-dropped/1032087.md?page=2)