When the farce turns into tragedy, it's the innocent who get burned first. trump's desperation to avoid getting blamed for the Reflection Pool fiasco has led to his thugs at the InJustice Department to file charges against scapegoats (via Lindsay Whitehurst and Meg Kinnard at AP News):
A former Olympian was indicted Thursday on a felony charge in what President Donald Trump has called vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where a renovation project he launched has been riddled with problems.
David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in Washington, D.C., court.
District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.
“This is a case with tremendous evidence,” she said, adding that authorities have made about six other misdemeanor arrests.
That is, coming from Pirro, a lie. Hearn's version of events:
Hearn didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. He previously told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool on June 19 to examine the newly peeled coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to.
“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview last month. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
Saying that he stopped by the pool during a 64-mile bike ride, Hearn said he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours before being released.
Even before Hearn got anywhere near the Pool, there were reports of pieces of paint peeling away from the granite surface. (That Reuters report is from June 18th. Hearn was arrested on the 19th.) The algae growth in the waters had been happening for days, and the whole thing had turned into a huge embarrassment for trump who crowed how his efforts were fixing a reflecting pool that didn't need a coat of paint and needed back the filters trump's people earlier removed and failed to put back.
Accusing other people of being vandals - and abusing the legal system to pursue felony charges where you can't prove actual harm - is all part of trump's downward spiral into his own madness and willingness to destroy everything he can't control.
I hope Hearn can convince the judge overseeing this case to dismiss outright. Pirro has no real evidence, just on the timeline alone Hearn can claim he didn't do anything to damage the Pool. It was already damaged by trump. And everyone - trump himself, in the darkest void of whatever replaced his soul - knows it.
1 comment:
Most (even Fergus appointed) judges require actual evidence in their proceedings, so there is a good chance he will be acquitted. The making him defend himself in court and in public is the point.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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