All posts tagged "Reflecting Pool"

President Donald Trump's legal setbacks are stacking up faster than a friendly Supreme Court can undo them, according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.

Vance, who served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, walked through a string of courtroom developments in four cities in a Thursday post on her Substack, Civil Discourse. Each one, she argued, went badly for the Trump administration.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman threw out the indictment against Davey Hearn, the Olympian the Trump administration blamed for damage to the Reflecting Pool. Edelman dismissed the case with prejudice, which bars prosecutors from refiling it. His order noted the government had already concluded no crime occurred....

The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool told President Donald Trump's administration that its own errors, not vandals, caused the new blue liner to fail.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings blamed its own work in an Aug. 14 report and added more detail on Sept. 2, according to government documents the New York Times reviewed. The newspaper published its account Friday. The documents cover the past two months.

The records include the company's reports to the government and daily progress updates from the National Park Service, according to the Times....

President Donald Trump's attempt to dodge lawsuits against his construction projects is paving the way toward another Reflecting Pool-style disaster, experts contend.

Trump's rushed construction of projects, including the East Wing ballroom and triumphal arch, were subjected to a scathing critique from The Atlantic on Saturday.

"Compressed schedules could lead to shoddy work that will require more repairs later," The Atlantic warned. "Trump's botched repairs to the Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation's 250th-birthday celebrations, in July, offer a classic example of the problem."...

The Justice Department is trying to revive its case against David Hearn despite admitting that it cannot prove he damaged the Reflecting Pool.

Legal analyst Adam Klasfeld offered updates on the DOJ's efforts after a judge grilled prosecutors during a hearing on Friday. Writing for All Rise News the same day, Klasfeld noted that the DOJ's concession that it can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn damaged the Reflecting Pool has proved "fatal."

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman asked DOJ prosecutors why they want to revive the case against Hearn....

A former Jack Smith prosecutor said the Justice Department's prosecution of an Olympian was "anathema" to the very office that brought the case.

During a Saturday interview on the Legal AF podcast, Mary Dorman talked about how the DOJ she knew would feel about the case against Davey Hearn, who was indicted for allegedly touching the damaged Reflecting Pool. Dorman is Hearn's co-counsel and is a principal at the Washington Litigation Group. She also served on Jack Smith's special counsel team.

The DOJ moved to dismiss its charges against Hearn after it conceded it couldn't prove that Hearn damaged the lining, though Dorman noted that the case can still come back. She said the prosecution violated everything the office she "grew up in" once represented....

A lawyer who stood up to the Department of Justice and won in a high-profile case expressed shock when talking about it being revived.

During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night, lawyer Norm Eisen spoke about the possibility of President Donald Trump's DOJ bringing back the case against Olympic canoer David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. The case was dismissed last week, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, said that the damage happened during installation.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Eisen about the possibility of the Trump DOJ bringing the case back, despite Pirro saying that the evidence pointed to a botched installation by the Interior Department, not Hearn, who constantly denied allegations that he ripped up the pool's liner....