FINALLY: Trump & DOJ get what they DESERVE after vindictive prosecution

It looks like the DOJ might finally be getting what they deserve.This is in the aftermath of trying to prosecute David Hearn, the former U .S.Olympian who they claimed had cut the reflecting pool.Obviously, those charges are now dropped as the whole case has kind of fallen apart.But Glenn, talk to me about David Hearn possibly being able to get his from all of this.

Yeah, so David Hearn just won a victory in court because the judge just dismissed the felony prosecution that Jeanine Pirro brought against him.Of course, we have now learned that he did nothing wrong.He committed no crime, certainly not a felony.Rather, it was because there was a botched install job, courtesy of a no -bid contract that Donald Trump delivered to one of his crony buddies.And it had nothing to do with vandalism of the reflecting pool by David Hearn or anybody else.So the judge, Judge Todd Edelman, whom I know, former PDS attorney in D .

C.dismissed the case.Here's why this is a win at the moment, although there's more litigation to come.This is why this is a win for 67 -year -old former Olympic canoeist David Hearn.David Hearn's lawyers said, look, we want this case to be dismissed with prejudice so it can never be, you know, resurrected, re -brought, re -indicted by Donald Trump's dirty DOJ officials.But DOJ, Jeanine Pirro said, no, no, no, we want it dismissed without prejudice because that will give them the opportunity to potentially bring it back up, revive it and re -indict.

David Hearn, here is what Judge Todd Edelman just did, which frankly was a bit of a surprise to me, but I'm going to read the money line from his two -page order.He said, both parties, meaning the Department of Justice and David Hearn and his attorneys, both parties agree that the case against Mr. Hearn should be dismissed, but they disagree as to the nature of the dismissal.Given the positions of the parties, the courtno reason why this felony case should remain pending against Mr. Hearn while the parties litigate and the court resolves the remaining issues.Accordingly, this case is dismissed.But what the court left open was future litigation on whether it should be dismissed or not.

with prejudice or without prejudice and there are other legal issues kicking around like should DOJ be required to give up to disclose all of the grand jury materials so that the defense can see you know just how severe the bad faith and potential prosecutorial misconduct was in the grand jury that produced this lawless, unsupportable indictment in the first place.But what the judge said, and I really appreciate what Judge Edelman did, he said, listen, right now the parties don't agree on the nature of the dismissal, how it should be dismissed, but what I'm ruling as the court is I don't want this felony case hanging over Mr. Hearn's head one more minute than it has to.So the case is dismissed.And then you know what?We will continue to litigate whether DOJ should be punished and prohibited from ever trying to resurrect from the dead this bullshit case.I'm now paraphrasing what Judge Edelman said, obviously.

So, you know, this is a victory for David Hearn.It is a loss for the Department of Justice.But This is not the end of the road.And now, in very long -winded fashion, let me answer your question, Brian, because I think this gives David Hearn more ammunition to consider whether to bring a civil lawsuit against the Department of Justice for them basically violating David Hearn's due process rights.by indicting him for a felony without having the evidence, without having the goods to back up that indictment.

So I want to dig into what a civil lawsuit against the DOJ would look like.But first, a quick reminder for folks who are watching, if you appreciate our legal analysis and want to support our work, it's completely free to do so, but all we ask is that you subscribe to our channels.I'm going to put those links in the post description of this video, so if you're not yet subscribed, please go ahead and hit subscribe.So Glenn, back to that question, what does a civil suit against the DOJ look like?

So there are a couple of steps when you want to sue the government because they have basically violated your legal or constitutional rights.The first thing you do is you file a claim.demanding to be made whole, to be compensated for the damage, the harm that DOJ did to you, that's under something called the Federal Tort Claims Act.And that is rarely successful.Why?Because DOJ gets to make the decision on whether, you know, they harmed you and whether you should receive any compensation as a result of that harm.

Now, let me tell you, Brian, sometimes DOJ will give up the ghost and try to basically make it go away by paying out on the administrative claim under the FTCA.And if that is what they decide to do, you know, maybe they can kind of make this issue go away entirely.More often than not, DOJ says either, nah, we didn't do anything wrong, or you didn't suffer any harm, or something else that is not unusual, sad though this may be, they'll just sit on the claim.And they won't do anything.They'll just let it lay dormant.And the good news is the law provides that if they don't act on the claim, then six months from the date that you filed it, it is deemed denied.

So they can't, you know, keep David Hearn waiting too long.They can keep him waiting half a year.And then David Hearn would have the opportunity to file suit in federal court if it is either denied officially or if it just expires after six months.And, you know, then what it all boils down to, in my opinion, much of the evidence will probably come from the grand jury transcripts and the grand jury minutes, meaning every word that a prosecutor says in that closed private grand jury room.Indeed, any word anybody says in that room is recorded and preserved.It becomes part of the grand jury minutes.

Trust me, Brian, for decades, I spent more time in front of grand juries than I could ever count.And just as we have seen in other cases, when judges have ordered the grand jury minutes released to the defense to see what DOJ attorneys and officials did in those grand jury rooms, Those cases get dismissed one after another after another.Why?for misconduct by prosecutors before the grand jury.These are often prosecutors that have been brought on board, brought to the Department of Justice in the era of Trump to his second administration.And they either don't know what they're doing or they're acting nefariously on the direction of higher ups or maybe a little bit of both.

So I think the success of any lawsuit that David Hearn ultimately may bring against the Department of Justice May kind of, you know, rely heavily on what we learned from those grand jury transcripts and grand jury minutes.

Look, I don't want to take too much too much.license here, but I presume that we're going to be all but assured that there was misconduct that took place within that grand jury proceeding because we have heard people like Jeanine Pirro say that there was tremendous evidence against David Hearn.We also heard Doug Burgum and Donald Trump say the same thing.But when push came to shove, when the actual evidence was put forward, Department of Interior said that it was the result of a botched job by the actual installer and didn't have anything to do with David Hearn.So if they were able to secure that indictment, logic would suggest that there was some misconduct that took place to be able to do so.And so what are the consequences for just letting lying to members of a grand jury in order to nefariously secure an indictment?

Are we looking at disbarment or are we just looking at, you know, there was misconduct that took place and it ended up not holding water and so it'll be dismissed and that's just the end of that.

Brian, good questions.I want to break it apart into two questions.The first part is where you said logic would seem to suggest that there was misconduct before the grand jury.Then we'll get to the second question about what are the consequences for Jeanine Pirro and company.But you know, the good news for David Hearn is we have more than just logic to suggest that misconduct occurred before the grand jury.Because what happened was there was some stuff that went on in the grand jury that was so bad and so egregious.

that the prosecutors actually felt compelled to give some of it to David Hearn's attorneys up front.Why?Because it's what we call Brady evidence.It's exculpatory evidence.It's evidence that would be very helpful to David Hearn and his lawyers in defending against the charge at trial.And that is when we all learned that the government's own witness, the prosecutor's own witness, who was presented to the grand jury, who was supposed to provide evidence of the value of the damage David Hearn was alleged to have done.

Of course, it doesn't seem like there's evidence that he did any damage.But at the time, they presented this witness, who was an alleged expert in, you know, how much it costs to install and repair pool liners.When push came to shove and he was asked some questions by the grand jurors during the grand jury hearing about, okay, there's some damage to the reflecting pool.How much of it monetarily can you say was caused by David Hearn?And based on the public reporting from those materials that the prosecutors gave to David Hearn's lawyers, He couldn't put a single dollar value, not a penny.He couldn't quantify it at all.

What does that mean?That means there's no evidence, based on what we know, to support the federal indictment that says he did $1 ,000 or more of damage to the reflecting pool, and that is why the felony indictment fails.What we know I think based on the evidence and because we can apply common sense is it sure looks like there was misconduct before the grand jury.What we don't know is what did the prosecutors say after that alleged expert witness.failed, abjectly failed to prove a dollar amount and attribute that damage to David Hearn.We don't know.

Did they go in and say, you know what, that expert is full of baloney, just go ahead and indict him on the felony and we'll work it out later?I sure hope not.But given some of the egregious misconduct we have seen by DOJ attorneys and officials in other grand juries, I don't think anything is beyond the pale.So now let's go to the second question.What happens to these attorneys if the grand jury minutes show that they were in there, in the grand jury, engaged in all sorts of misconduct?They will certainly be referred to their state bar counsel, there will be an ethics investigation launched, there will be a full hearing, and there will be a finding as to whether any of these DOJ lawyers engaged in misconduct such that they should be sanctioned.

And those sanctions can include a reprimand, it can include a fine.of suspension of your law license.It can include permanent disbarment, as was the case with so many other Trump lawyers from the first administration who were disbarred for, you know, doing Donald Trump's dirty bidding.So, you know, there is hope for accountability.And it's just, you know, we're going to have to watch to see how things unfold.And most notably, what we learned from those grand jury transcripts and minutes.

Look, when we talk about this stuff, I so often ask about consequences and accountability, because, you know, that's naturally, I think, where everybody's mind goes when we see this kind of corruption take place.But then I'm thinking about this, and even if we are in a position where David Hearn can you know, sue for monetary damages against the federal government.At the end of the day, it's not like those people are paying out of their own pockets, right?Isn't it just U .S.taxpayers that are footing the bill for the government's incompetence?

And so they have an endless, unlimited pot of money that they can pull from that basically makes these defendants whole after they're the victims of vindictive prosecutions, but the losers in all of this are taxpayers.

You know, Brian, I try to shine a point of light for everybody and you snuff it out.Appropriately so, because your point is an excellent one.If we are forever compensating the wrongdoers in government for doing wrong when they get caught and they get held accountable, we're compensating them with our tax dollars.Where the hell is the deterrent value in any of it?Well, the deterrent value ultimately in this, you know, scenario that we're discussing is if these attorneys get disbarred, you know, they're going to have a tougher time earning a living.Now, the flip side of that coin is I'm sure, you know, if there is another dirty presidential

administration in the future, they would be happy to take in some of these sanctioned or disbarred lawyers because that's almost sort of a plus on somebody's resume and Donald Trump's estimation of, oh, wait a minute, you've been sanctioned for doing dirt on behalf of me, the president, come on into my administration.So listen, there is always a counterpoint to the accountability point that we're trying to make.But, you know, nobody said any of this was going to be easy or fun or clean.But I am just as, I think, angry as you are that even if they're held accountable, much of the damage that they did will end up being cleaned up.with our own tax dollars.

So we will of course stay on top of any updates we get on the David Hearn front.For those who are watching, if you enjoy our legal analysis, the best way again to tune in is to subscribe to both of our channels.Those links are now right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video.So if you're not yet subscribed, 100 % free to subscribe, but a great way to support us.I'm Brian Tyler Cohen.And I'm Glenn Kirshner.

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