# The Government’s Sole Witness Just Sank the Reflecting Pool Case (w/ Ryan Reilly) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bulwark-4018927/the-government-s-sole-witness-just-sank-the-reflecting-pool-case-w-ryan-reilly Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bulwark-4018927/the-government-s-sole-witness-just-sank-the-reflecting-pool-case-w-ryan-reilly.md Podcast: [The Bulwark](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bulwark-4018927) Published: 2026-07-28T21:29:15+00:00 Episode link: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-governments-sole-witness-just Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/208886386/8653d9b806d5399a1e5418cf0f60aa4b.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-bulwark-4018927/episodes/the-government-s-sole-witness-just-sank-the-reflecting-pool-case-w-ryan-reilly Duration seconds: 570 ## Resource This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com The Justice Department's case against Olympic canoeist David Hearn may have a major problem and it comes from the government's own witness. Sam Stein is joined by NBC News justice reporter Ryan Reilly to take on new court filings showing the prosecution's key witness reportedly acknowledged the reflecting pool was already damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it. If that's true, can DOJ still prove the felony charge against him? They discuss why the $1,000 damage threshold is so important, what Jeanine Pirro's office has to prove, and why Hearn's attorneys argue the grand jury may have been misled.Read more from Ryan’s reporting: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/reflecting-pool-case-witness-conceded-damage-olympic-canoeist-davey-he-rcna589510 ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-bulwark-4018927/episodes/the-government-s-sole-witness-just-sank-the-reflecting-pool-case-w-ryan-reilly/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bulwark-4018927/the-government-s-sole-witness-just-sank-the-reflecting-pool-case-w-ryan-reilly.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.