The Washington Post reports:

Attorneys for the former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are asking a judge to ensure federal prosecutors don’t have a chance to reopen the case against him.

In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for David Hearn pushed back against the Justice Department’s move to dismiss the charge against their client “without prejudice,” which would allow the department to prosecute him later.

Lawyers Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin wrote that recent attacks by President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum against the decision to drop the case raise concerns that Trump could push to revive the prosecution.

The department “has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts,” the attorneys wrote. “Fortunately, D.C. law provides a remedy for circumstances presenting this risk of harassment and bad faith: dismissal with prejudice.” [Continue reading…]

The Washington Post reports:

Sophie Dennison-Gibby, a veterinarian with more than 20 years of experience caring for animals, considers herself “rather obsessed about picking up litter.” So, when she visited the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June and noticed what appeared to be trash floating in the water, her first instinct, she said, was to remove it to help local wildlife.

In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Dennison-Gibby, speaking publicly for the first time, detailed what happened that day. Shortly after plucking what turned out to be peeling liner from the water, an officer approached her, she said.

“Well, I wish you hadn’t done that. Now I’m going to arrest you,” Dennison-Gibby recalled the officer, whom she identified as a U.S. marshal, telling her.

Dennison-Gibby said the officer told her to place her hands behind her back and handcuffed her. A Post reporter who was visiting the Reflecting Pool with her family witnessed the arrest.

Dennison-Gibby said the officer led her away from the pool, where she was soon surrounded by several other law enforcement officers.

“That’s when things got really scary,” she said. She said she didn’t know where she was being taken or how long she would be detained.

Dennison-Gibby said she was taken to a Park Police facility in Southwest Washington, where she was processed and fingerprinted. She was released later that day.

Dennison-Gibby was one of three defendants charged with misdemeanors related to Reflecting Pool damage. The Justice Department dropped all three cases late last week and moved to drop a felony charge against former Olympian David Hearn, indicating that the damage was instead due to a “botched” repair job. [Continue reading…]