Three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn says being criminally charged over alleged damage to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall did not feel like living in "the land of the free and the home of the brave," in his first interview since the Justice Department dismissed the case against him, according to CNN.
Hearn had been charged with destruction of property after prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, accused him of damaging the recently renovated Reflecting Pool during a visit to the National Mall in June. Hearn pleaded not guilty and said he had reached into the water to touch a detached section of the pool's liner out of curiosity, not to cause harm, according to MS NOW. The Justice Department later dropped the charges, a decision that has since become a flashpoint in a public dispute involving President Donald Trump.
Speaking to CNN, Hearn described the experience of being prosecuted over the incident as jarring and out of step with his understanding of American ideals. He did not detail the specifics of his encounter with law enforcement beyond his earlier account that he had touched the pool liner because it appeared to be coming apart, not because he intended to damage the structure.
Trump Presses Pirro to Reopen the Case
The dismissal did not end the matter. President Trump has repeatedly asserted that the Reflecting Pool was vandalized, and on Friday he used his Truth Social platform to call on Pirro to reconsider her office's decision to drop the charges, according to MS NOW. "Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM at The Reflecting Pool," Trump wrote, sharing a screenshot of a post from a freelance photographer who said his images showed cuts in the expansion joints along the side of the pool.
"U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision," Trump wrote, according to MS NOW's reporting on the post. The president's public pressure campaign comes as Pirro's own position as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia is reportedly on the line, MS NOW reported, raising questions about how much latitude she has to resist the president's demands on a case her office had already closed.
Trump did not stop at criticizing the legal decision. In the same social media post, he also took aim at Hearn personally, describing him as "a big player in ActBlue," the fundraising platform widely used by Democratic candidates and committees, which Trump characterized as a "scam," according to MS NOW. Hearn's connection to ActBlue, and the relevance of that association to the underlying property-damage allegation, was not elaborated on by Trump in the post cited by MS NOW.
A Canoeist's Curiosity, Not Vandalism, Hearn Says
At the center of the dispute is a basic factual disagreement: whether the damage to the Reflecting Pool's liner and expansion joints was caused by Hearn's actions, by preexisting wear from the pool's renovation, or by some combination of factors that has yet to be publicly resolved. Hearn's defense, as relayed by MS NOW, was that he noticed the pool liner appeared detached and reached in out of curiosity, not to pull it apart or otherwise vandalize the structure.
The freelance photographer's images that Trump cited as evidence of "pure VANDALISM" reportedly showed cuts in the expansion joints along the side of the pool, though it remains unclear from available reporting who examined those images professionally or whether investigators have reached any new conclusions since the charges were dropped. The Reflecting Pool, a fixture of the National Mall stretching between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial, had undergone renovation work, which may account for some of the visible seams and joint work now being scrutinized in photographs circulating online.
CNN's coverage of the story also pointed to reporting by The New York Times examining a possible connection between the Reflecting Pool matter and a Trump hospitality manager, an angle that adds another layer to a case that has moved well beyond a simple municipal property dispute into the realm of presidential politics and personnel pressure on a sitting U.S. Attorney.
A Case Caught Between Law Enforcement and Politics
What began as a misdemeanor-level property complaint against a private citizen has evolved into a test of how directly a president can push a Justice Department official to reopen a case her own office decided not to pursue. Pirro, appointed to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, now faces a public directive from Trump to revisit a prosecutorial judgment already made, with her tenure reportedly hanging in the balance, according to MS NOW's reporting.
For Hearn, a three-time Olympian in canoe sprint, the ordeal has taken on a symbolic weight beyond the underlying facts of a touched pool liner. His remarks to CNN suggest he views the episode as reflecting something troubling about the relationship between political power and the justice system, rather than a straightforward misunderstanding at a national landmark.
As of the latest reporting, it remains unclear whether the Justice Department will act on Trump's public request to Pirro, whether any new evidence beyond the photographer's images will be introduced, or whether Hearn could once again face charges over an incident at the Reflecting Pool that he has consistently described as an act of curiosity rather than destruction.
