A legal expert pulled apart the Trump administration’s prosecution of a U.S. Olympian accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.
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During an appearance on CNN, Ryan Goodman, a former Pentagon lawyer and the editor-in-chief of Just Security, said that the case, led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, “smells really bad.”
Goodman blasted Pirro’s claim that her office would prosecute Olympic canoeist David Hearn based on “evidence” that he vandalized the pool. Hearn said he reached into the pool and touched a piece of detached liner, but didn’t actually remove it.
“I wish I could believe her that it was just according to the evidence and not according to the president’s behest,” Goodman said. “But there’s a pattern.”
Hearn was originally given a misdemeanor citation in June, and “the next day, the president of the United States said that for people committing that act, they need to spend years in jail,” Goodman noted.
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“The only way you spend years in jail is if you committed a felony,” he explained. “And then a couple of days later, the president of the United States said that people who committed these acts can spend up to ten years in jail. And then lo and behold, we have the shock that the man has been charged with a felony and up to ten years in jail.”
Goodman also pointed to Pirro’s criminal investigation against former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as evidence of a “pattern” that she follows Trump’s orders.
“She also, in her office, tried to bring seditious conspiracy charges against members of Congress because the president of the United States said that they made a video about the military not having to follow unlawful orders,” Goodman said, referring to an incident earlier this year.
He said the case against Hearn “smells really bad” because “it’s in lockstep with the president,” as in other similar cases.
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