WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration has brought a number of high-profile cases, some of which have been dropped, dismissed or blocked by judges or juries.
Here are some of the cases.
REFLECTING POOL
The Justice Department dropped its case against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, part of Trump’s efforts to remake Washington. In a July 31 court filing, federal prosecutors said evidence pointed to a flawed installation, not vandalism, as causing the liner of the newly renovated pool to peel.
Trump, facing criticism over the $14.7 million renovation, had repeatedly blamed the problems on vandals he alleged had sabotaged the project.
Hearn, 67, pleaded not guilty to felony destruction of property. He had acknowledged reaching into the pool to touch a section of already detached liner, but denied ever removing a piece. Lawyers for the former Olympic canoeist accused the Trump administration of using the case to provide “political cover” for mismanagement of the project.
SANDWICH THROWER, OTHER ASSAULTS ON FEDERAL OFFICERS
Christian Garcia was charged with assaulting a federal officer in June 2025 immigration protests in Santa Ana, California. He admitted to throwing a plastic water bottle toward officers but said the wind blew it back onto him.
Garcia, 32 at the time, was arrested and held for three days, then lost both his jobs after his bosses told him they had been called by investigators.
Federal prosecutors dropped the case in January with no explanation.
The Trump administration has brought criminal charges against at least 851 people accused of attacking or impeding federal officers, only to abandon them at an unusually high rate.
A Reuters review of federal court records completed in July found that 31% of completed cases had ended in dismissal. That compares to 8% of all federal criminal cases, according to Federal Judicial Center data.
Separately, former Justice Department staffer Sean Dunn, who hurled a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent in fury over Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington, was cleared of misdemeanor assault charges in November 2025 after a three-day trial.
Prosecutors initially sought felony charges against Dunn, but downgraded the case to a misdemeanor after a grand jury declined to return an indictment, one of several cases in which grand juries refused to indict.
LETITIA JAMES
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime Trump critic, was charged in October 2025 with lying on a mortgage application. A federal judge dismissed the criminal charges the following month, saying the Trump-picked U.S. attorney who brought the case was unlawfully appointed.
In December, a federal grand jury in Virginia refused to indict James on allegations of mortgage fraud for the second time, according to sources familiar with the matter.
James, an elected Democrat, characterized the case as an abuse of the criminal justice system designed to punish her for her criticism of Trump and a lawsuit she led against Trump and his family real estate business.
JAMES COMEY
Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017 as the bureau investigated possible collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, became a harsh critic and frequent target of the president.
The Justice Department filed criminal charges against Comey in September 2025 alleging false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation over Comey’s 2020 testimony when he addressed Republican criticism of the Russia investigation.
In November, a federal judge dismissed charges against Comey, saying the U.S. attorney who brought the case was unlawfully appointed.
In April, the Justice Department charged him with threatening Trump by posting a 2025 photo of seashells arranged on a North Carolina beach to show the numbers “86 47.”
In U.S. parlance, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar, while 47 could be seen as code for Trump, the 47th president. Comey’s lawyers said the case was a vindictive prosecution.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)
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