Jeanine Pirro is taking heat for indicting a former Olympic canoeist on a felony charge for allegedly ripping pool sealant with his bare hands.
David Carter Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Md., a three-time U.S. Olympian, was indicted Thursday on a felony destruction of property charge that carries up to 10 years in prison, according to the New York Times. He was arrested June 19 after witnesses said he ripped sealant from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The pool had just undergone a $16.4 million no-bid makeover ordered by President Donald Trump. It turned green with algae anyway.
At a press conference, a reporter pressed District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on how prosecutors could prove $1,000 in damages — the minimum threshold for a felony charge.
"How do you prove that thousand dollars? Is that because — it has to be drained?"
"We'll hear all that at the trial," Pirro said.
"Did he have any tools, or was it just his bare hands?"
"Right now, we believe it's his bare hands. Both hands," Pirro replied.
"He damaged the pool!" Pirro snapped when the reporter pressed on whether the pool had already been damaged before Hearn arrived.
"But do you believe it had already been damaged before then?"
"He damaged this pool!"
Anti-disinformation commentator Jim Stewartson wrote on X that Pirro was "indicting an Olympian for touching water."
Legal analyst Katie Phang called Pirro "Jeanine Box-o-Wine" on Bluesky and quoted her directly: "He damaged the pool!!!"
"Pretty easy to see this will fall apart," former New York Daily News journalist Helen Kennedy wrote on Bluesky. "The guy didn't damage anything. Pirro should face consequences for this."
Former CBS News correspondent Sam Litzinger wrote on Bluesky that "Judge Box Wine should lose handily."
Meanwhile, Trump has claimed — without providing evidence — that vandals cut a "350-foot gash" into the pool's lining. The figure shifted across multiple statements, from 250 feet to 350 feet to multiple gashes. Prosecutors have not explained how Hearn's two bare hands account for it.
