Justice Department IG refuses to investigate botched Reflecting Pool case after Trump’s false vandalism claims

The Justice Department’s inspector general is refusing to investigate what went wrong with the botched criminal case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn over damage at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, including whether there was any criminality on prosecutors’ parts, Hearn’s legal team said.

In a letter Wednesday to Inspector General Don R. Berthiaume, Hearn’s attorneys asked his office to reconsider its decision because of evidence of “numerous potential criminal violations — possible crimes committed solely by DOJ personnel, as well as crimes committed jointly by DOJ” employees and personnel from the Department of Interior.

The inspector general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hearn’s attorneys had previously asked the watchdog to investigate “the incompetence and wrongdoing” of Justice Department employees, writing that the “sprint to charge Mr. Hearn mirrored the rushed renovation” of the Reflecting Pool itself.

Hearn was charged in July with causing felony damage to President Donald Trump’s renovations of the Reflecting Pool.

Trump had blamed the damage at the pool on Hearn and other “vandals.” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s office moved to dismiss the case at the end of July, saying it had found the damage was…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business