The attorney for an Olympic canoe racer arrested for alleged actions at the Reflecting Pool joined MS NOW with his client to speak out.
David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympic athlete, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property during his trip to the Reflecting Pool. The popular tourist spot has been experiencing some problems following its renovation, which President Donald Trump claims is related to people throwing in “fertilizer” and chipping off the peeling paint to take home. Hearn is among those accused of such acts, though he says he never actually removed anything from the pool.
Watch:
(Video Credit: MS NOW)
“I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece,” Hearn explained to the Washington Post. “It was still attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”
“I didn’t vandalize anything. I didn’t destroy, break, or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Visiting MS NOW to weigh in on his story, Hearn was joined by his attorney, Norm Eisen.
Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a CNN legal analyst, and author of such books as “A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J Trump” and “Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy.”
Hearn told MS NOW host Chris Hayes that he was on a 50-mile bike ride when he decided to “swing back over by the Reflecting Pool on my way back as a concerned, curious citizen.”
According to his story, he put his hand in the pool and then walked back to his bike when “three National Guard troops sort of materialized and started talking to me about – after I greeted them, they were talking to me about the park police wanting to talk to me.”
“I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong, so I had no reason to think I was going to be arrested. But I suggested we walk over toward the park police rather than waiting for them to come to us, and went over and furnished my ID, and kind of before I knew it, I was being handcuffed and realized I was being arrested,” he added.
Eisen insisted “there was no crime” or “wrongdoing” on behalf of his client.
“This is a reflecting pool where people have for decades touched the water. How can it be a crime to touch the water of the reflecting pool? Chris, what you see is a desperate effort to cast blame anywhere other than those responsible,” the attorney claimed.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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