Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, now serving in the Justice Department, announced that the DOJ was dropping charges against Olympian David Hearn for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the iconic landmark on the National Mall managed by the National Park Service. The decision came after an investigation determined that all of the pool's problems stemmed from a botched installation rather than any act of vandalism.

During a discussion with Hearn's attorney, Norm Eisen, the MS NOW panel highlighted that the prosecution of Hearn was emblematic of a broader pattern: the Justice Department leveraging its authority to carry out President Donald Trump's directives, a dynamic that runs counter to the post-Watergate norm of maintaining institutional distance between the White House and federal prosecutors. Trump has insisted that the pool was damaged by vandals, placing him at odds with his own FBI and DOJ. He previously claimed there was a 200-350 "foot" — or sometimes "yard" — gash in the lining. However, after the pool was drained, no such gash was found.

Eisen pushed back against Pirro's assertion that the defense lacked evidence disproving the vandalism allegations at the time Hearn was charged. Eisen stated that he used the DOJ's "own evidence and other photographs" to demonstrate that "the section of the reflecting pool that they claimed Davey had damaged was exactly the same in photographs before and after he touched it."

Eisen said the defense team was "gratified" that the DOJ ultimately acknowledged the botched installation was to blame. But he raised a broader concern: "What have we come to as a country where under Todd Blanche, Jeanine Pirro and Donald Trump, innocent people like Davey Hearn can be targeted?"

"Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire described the Reflecting Pool situation as one that "has become a national joke, frankly, a national embarrassment. But this is more than just a no-bid contract. This is the president of the United States and his Justice Department, and Todd Blanche, is soon to be permanent attorney general, sort of, carrying out the president's whims and wishes."

Political analyst and New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay concurred, stating that Trump "has totally weaponized the Justice Department — has inverted the mission."

Gay noted that the political dynamics of the ordeal were notable because "corruption can be hard" to get Americans to care about. "Even lies can be hard to, kind of, drive home the meaning of it, the consequences to just ordinary voters. But this is a case where that's not true because everybody in America can see that it is President Trump's fault, that he has destroyed the Reflecting Pool, just like they saw the damage to the White House. And so that's the kind of corruption that you can touch, taste, feel, that in addition to going after a private citizen in Davey Hearn."

She pointed out that Hearn's case differed from Trump's targeting of political adversaries such as James Comey and Letitia James. Hearn, she emphasized, was simply a regular American who had placed his hand in the pool. Gay drew a parallel to the two Georgia election workers who were targeted by Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

"I mean, Americans don't like bullies, and they don't like liars. And this is a case where you can just see very clearly that the president is lying," Gay continued. "You have evidence that you can, kind of, live in. And now there's, I mean, people who are visitors to Washington, D.C. are, you know, talking about how they're essentially on a tour of Donald Trump's damage to the nation's capital. It's embarrassing."

She added that anyone who is "not in the MAGA cult is going to realize, I can't take this seriously. It's dark, but it's going to be hard for him to get out of this one."