Judge criticizes Trump pressure on prosecutors on reflecting pool vandalism charges

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Bushwick Tarantella

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman signaled he may block any new felony charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn, after President Trump publicly pressured the U.S. Attorney's Office to refile charges his own office had quietly dropped. Trump, who oversaw the reflecting pool's renovation, said U.S. Attorney Jeanne Pirro 'choked' and 'folded like an umbrella' for dismissing the case.

Government lawyers in court could not say whether the administration would try charging Hearn again, since Pirro's dismissal was without prejudice. Pirro herself said her office wouldn't have pursued charges initially if the Interior Department had shared more information about the pool's repair work.

Rep. Jamie Raskin and Hearn's attorney Norm Eisen appeared outside the courthouse with supporters, calling the episode a test case for whether any citizen can be charged on presidential say-so. The case unfolds against Trump's broader remaking of the capital's landmarks, from a triumphal arch to the removal of cherry trees.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A president leaning on prosecutors to recharge a man over pool damage is the kind of thing that would get a county commissioner run out of office, and here it barely makes the news cycle. The dismissal was 'without prejudice,' which in plain terms means the threat can come back around whenever the mood strikes. That's not law enforcement, that's a grudge with a badge attached.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Bushwick Tarantella · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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