Newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche is being handed a massive headache in his new job due to President Donald Trump’s latest pet project, according to a new analysis.
Blanche, who is expected to have his hands full defending the current administration’s policies that are facing an avalanche of lawsuits, will also have to clean up the mess over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool prosecutions.
According to Slate’s Shrin Ali, Trump’s pool “obsession” has now become Blanche’s problem.
In her “Executive Dysfunction” newsletter, Ali argued that the president is “bizarrely fixated” on prosecuting 67-year-old former Olympian David Hearn for “vandalizing” the Reflecting Pool, despite U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro having already dropped the case.
White House officials have asked the DOJ to consider a new prosecution of Hearn, according to unnamed sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, which noted that such a move would be “highly unusual.”
“It seems Trump has renewed faith in his new AG to get this job done, though, as unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal that White House officials have asked the DOJ to consider a new prosecution of Hearn, despite how unusual such a move would be,” Ali wrote.
Ali noted Blanche will also have to contend with a “hearing to decide whether Hearn’s dismissed charges should be held with prejudice, so the DOJ can’t charge him again for the same alleged conduct.”
“You dismiss with prejudice when there’s a risk of repeated harassment and bad faith. Look at Trump’s social media and tell me that risk isn’t real,” explained Norm Eisen, Hearn’s lawyer.
Ali observed, “Based on this week’s reporting, that certainly still seems to be very much a risk.”
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