Trump prosecutor taken to school by defense in Reflecting Pool case: 'Exactly backwards'

The defense counsel in the Trump administration's Reflecting Pool vandalism case were forced to school the prosecution on how grand jury secrecy rules work.

The case concerns Olympic canoeist David "Davey" Hearn, who is charged by federal prosecutors with damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after its controversial renovation on President Donald Trump's orders. Hearn denies doing any damage to the pool, and one key witness stated the damage existed before Hearn was even there.

According to NBC News justice correspondent Ryan J. Reilly, Hearn's defense counsel had to remind Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington in a scathing court filing that grand jury secrecy only applies to the prosecution — not to the defense.

"The government seeks to extend its government-specific Rule 6(e) obligations to the defense, asserting that the defense 'cho[se] not to honor Rule 6(e)' when it discussed grand jury testimony in its filing," wrote the defense. "But the government has Rule 6(e) exactly backward. While 'an attorney for the government' is expressly prohibited from disclosing, without permission, a matter occurring before a grand jury, the defense is not ... Accordingly, there can be no defense Rule 6(e) violation resulting from the defense's proper use of grand jury testimony in connection with these judicial proceedings."

Additionally, the filing continued, "an indictment has already been issued in this case, and the government sought and received permission from the Court to disclose grand jury materials to the defense. Rule 6(e) is simply inapplicable, and the government's contrary suggestion is plainly incorrect."

The Reflecting Pool renovation was one of Trump's prized D.C. beautification projects, but it ran into problems almost immediately as the paint and sealing swiftly allowed a massive algae bloom to take over. The White House promptly had huge quantities of hydrogen peroxide dumped in to control the algae, but this caused the new renovations to start peeling and cracking.

Trump has insisted the damage is actually the result of a "gash" made in the pool by political protesters on purpose, but no evidence has emerged of this.