{"id":4373,"date":"2026-08-04T15:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4373"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:39:15","slug":"trump-dojs-stunning-move-laid-bare-agencys-pervasive-fear-law-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4373","title":{"rendered":"Trump DOJ\u2019s stunning move laid bare agency\u2019s pervasive fear: law experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department made the rare move of backing off a criminal case last week, with experts telling Bloomberg Law that the administration is attempting to flee in the face of deeper “judicial scrutiny” of its motivations.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump \u2018believability crisis\u2019 launches GOP off \u2018dangerous\u2019 cliff: Republican<\/a><\/p>\n

The DOJ filed a motion on Friday to dismiss the criminal case against former Olympian canoeist David Hearn, whom they have previously accused of vandalizing the lining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Hearn was among the many observers who visited the pool after its Trump-backed renovation caused it to explode with an algae bloom. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia wrote in the filing that, in light of new evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” while also dropping three other cases tied to the pool situation as well.<\/p>\n

“The motion, along with subsequent moves to drop misdemeanor cases against three additional people accused of damaging the pool, reveals the hesitancy of the D.C. U.S. attorney\u2019s office to open itself up to judicial scrutiny as judges have made findings of attorney misconduct in cases defending Trump\u2019s policy agenda, former prosecutors and legal ethics professors said,” the report explained. “The development also highlights the dilemma facing attorneys who risk professional discipline while advancing the demands of their superiors at a DOJ that critics see as increasingly politicized during Trump\u2019s second term.”<\/p>\n

Speaking with Bloomberg Law for a Tuesday report, various legal experts argued that this rare Trump administration retreat was also likely driven by the fear of facing actual scrutiny in court. Kathleen Clark, legal ethics lawyer and Washington University law professor, called the move a “cover your a\u2014\u2014” motion and urged the court to scrutinize the case anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis CYA motion is an attempt to prevent the court from engaging in the kind of scrutiny that frankly the court needs to pursue anyway at this point,” Clark said.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s 1 quality that makes him hard to beat \u2014 and \u2018impossible\u2019 to replace<\/a><\/p>\n

She also added that, “There are reasons to believe that the US attorney\u2019s office manipulated the grand jury process and complied with its discovery obligations only haltingly,” citing evidence put forward by Hearn’s defense team that showed “shifting” expert testimony concerning “whether the damage [he] allegedly caused was in excess of $1,000.”<\/p>\n

“Allegiance to the president only gets you so far,\u201d Jeffrey Bellin, a criminal law professor at Vanderbilt University who previously served as a prosecutor in the D.C. U.S. attorney\u2019s office, told Bloomberg. \u201cOnce it becomes apparent that a charge lacks evidence, a prosecutor has an ethical and legal obligation to dismiss.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a possibility that had this case gone forward, the judge might have made findings or inquiries into members from the U.S. attorney\u2019s office who were involved in bringing the case or required disclosure of information relating to the grand jury that could have led to ethical inquiries,\u201d Alexis Loeb, a partner at Farella Braun + Martel LLP who also previously worked at the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office, added.<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court puts final nail in coffin of Trump\u2019s long-shot demand<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department made the rare move of backing off a criminal case last week, with experts telling Bloomberg Law that the administration is attempting to flee in the face of deeper “judicial scrutiny” of its motivations.The DOJ filed a motion on Friday to dismiss the crimi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump DOJ\u2019s stunning move laid bare agency\u2019s pervasive fear: law experts - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4373\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump DOJ\u2019s stunning move laid bare agency\u2019s pervasive fear: law experts - 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