Collins questions White House push to retry case against ex-Olympian over Reflecting Pool fiasco

During a Tuesday night broadcast, Kaitlan Collins challenged the White House’s renewed attempt to prosecute David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist previously charged with tearing up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s liner after Donald Trump’s $16.4 million, no-bid refurbishment left the water green with algae. Norm Eisen, who represented Hearn, cautioned that any fresh indictment would create a DOJ-versus-DOJ scenario, as a prior filing attributed the damage to a botched, rushed installation by the Department of the Interior.

The original case was thrown out after a judge ruled there was no evidence beyond reasonable doubt. The push follows Todd Blanche’s recent swearing-in as the Justice Department’s leader, raising questions about internal consistency. Critics note that contracts were awarded to firms with little federal experience and a donor with a felony record, underscoring concerns about procurement and accountability. The episode illustrates the administration’s strategy of shifting blame for the Reflecting Pool debacle onto an individual athlete.