2026年10月21日 / 美国东部时间上午9:42 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
美国司法部监察长拒绝就针对检察官的不当行为指控展开调查，这些检察官曾起诉奥运选手大卫·赫恩，虚假指控其破坏倒影池。
在哥伦比亚广播公司新闻获得的10月21日的信件中，赫恩的律师透露，司法部监察长唐·伯蒂奥姆认定相关指控不在其职权范围内，并将此事转交给了职业责任办公室。
该办公室是在水门事件后设立的，负责调查特定类型的律师不当行为。
不过，与经总统任命、参议院确认的监察长不同，职业责任办公室负责人由司法部长任命，普遍被认为独立性不及监察长办公室。
去年，司法部领导层罢免了负责该办公室的职业官员，此举引发了司法部资深人士的担忧，他们担心该办公室是否愿意追究特朗普任命官员的责任。
赫恩的律师在回应监察长的拒绝决定时指出，自特朗普政府上任以来，该办公室的人员已缩减了约50%。
“显而易见的事实是，职业责任办公室已不再是一个能够开展严格监督的完整运作机构，”他们写道。
律师们补充道，监察长办公室拒绝调查意味着相关调查“根本不会开展”。
10月6日，赫恩的律师要求司法部监察长和内政部监察长调查围绕赫恩被捕、起诉以及重罪破坏财产指控被撤销的相关情况。
该起诉于7月2日在一场激烈的新闻发布会上公布，时任哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官珍妮娜·皮尔罗指控赫恩用手撕裂了倒影池的衬里。
后来她撤销了此案，称新发现的信息表明，损坏是由承包商“安装失误”造成的，而非故意破坏。
在给司法部内部监督办公室的后续信件中，赫恩的律师表示，有必要展开调查，因为司法部和内政部对该案的处理方式暴露出“诸多潜在罪行，包括证人篡改、唆使作伪证、妨碍司法公正以及刑事民权侵犯”。
“本案的问题不在于检察官在诉讼过程中是否判断失误。相反，这些指控涉及潜在的犯罪行为，包括证人篡改、唆使作伪证、妨碍司法公正以及针对民权的共谋，”包括前司法部监察长迈克尔·布罗米奇在内的赫恩律师团队说道。
“此类指控完全属于监察长办公室传统的调查职能范围，”他们表示。
他们称，其中一起可能的犯罪行为是，该案的关键证人在大陪审团面前突然更改了证词内容。
起初，该证人告诉大陪审团，倒影池早已需要维修。该证人也无法估算损坏的成本，且不确定是否是赫恩造成了损坏。
不过，在休息21分钟后，该证人返回并作证称损坏“肯定”造成了1000美元或更高的损失，赫恩的律师写道——这是对某人提起破坏财产重罪起诉的必要关键数额。
历任美国司法部监察长长期以来都抱怨其调查某些类型律师不当行为的权限有限。
职业责任办公室被授予专属管辖权，负责调查司法部律师在诉讼、调查或提供法律咨询过程中的行为。
但因开展调查时存在不当行为的联邦特工，则受监察长办公室管辖。
尽管有这些职责划分，司法部监察长办公室过去也曾对司法部律师的行为开展过多起备受瞩目的调查。
例如，2023年，该办公室调查了前马萨诸塞州区联邦检察官蕾切尔·罗林斯，并建议对其提起可能的公诉，认定她利用职务之便向报纸泄露政治对手的负面信息，干预地方检察官选举。
司法部最终未对该案提起刑事指控。
DOJ’s inspector general declines to investigate prosecutors who falsely charged Olympian David Hearn in Reflecting Pool case
October 21, 2026 / 9:42 AM EDT / CBS News
The Justice Department’s inspector general has declined to investigate allegations of misconduct against the prosecutors who brought an indictment against Olympian David Hearn that falsely accused him of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.
In an Oct. 21 letter seen by CBS News, lawyers for Hearn revealed that DOJ’s Inspector General Don Berthiaume determined the allegations fell outside of his purview, and referred the matter to the Office of Professional Responsibility.
Established in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Office of Professional Responsibility is charged with investigating certain categories of attorney misconduct.
Unlike the inspector general, who is presidentially-appointed and Senate confirmed, however, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility is appointed by the Attorney General and is generally viewed as less independent than an inspector general’s office.
Last year, Justice Department leadership removed the career official in charge of the office, a maneuver that raised concerns among longtime department veterans about whether the office would be willing to hold Trump-appointed officials accountable.
In their response to the inspector general’s declination, Hearn’s attorneys noted that the office has been depleted by roughly 50% since the start of the Trump administration.
“The plain fact is that OPR is no longer a fully functioning entity capable of conducting rigorous oversight,” they wrote.
The attorneys added that the declination from the inspector general’s office means that an investigation “will simply not take place.”
On Oct. 6, Hearn’s lawyers asked both the DOJ inspector general and the inspector general at the Interior Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding Hearn’s arrest, indictment and the dismissal of the felony charge of destruction of property.
The indictment was announced in a fiery press conference on July 2 with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who accused him of ripping up a piece of the Reflecting Pool liner with his hands.
She later dismissed the case, after she said new information had come to light showing the damage had been caused by a contractor’s “botched installation,” not vandalism.
In their follow-up letter to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog office, Hearn’s lawyers said an investigation was warranted because the handling of the case by the Justice and Interior departments points to “numerous potential crimes, including witness tampering, subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice, and criminal civil rights violations.”
“The question presented here is not whether prosecutors exercised poor judgment in the course of litigation. Rather, the allegations concern potential criminal conduct, including witness tampering, subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracies against civil rights,” said his lawyers, which include former DOJ Inspector General Michael Bromwich.
“Such allegations fall squarely within the OIG’s traditional investigative function,” they said.
One such example of a possible crime, they said, was the fact that a key witness in the case abruptly changed the content of the testimony before the grand jury.
At first, the witness told the grand jury that the Reflecting Pool was already in need of repairs. The witness also was unable to estimate the cost of the damage and did not know whether Hearn had caused it.
After a 21-minute break, however, the witness returned and testified that the damage was “definitely” $1,000 or more, his lawyers wrote — a key figure that is necessary in order to indict someone on a destruction of property felony.
Prior Justice Department inspectors general have long complained about the limitations to their authority to investigate certain types of attorney misconduct.
The OPR is tasked with exclusive jurisdiction to investigate department lawyers in connection with their actions when they are litigating, investigating, or providing legal advice.
Federal agents who are accused of misconduct in connection with conducting investigations, however, are subject to the jurisdiction of the inspector general.
Despite those delineations, the DOJ inspector general’s office has in the past conducted a number of high-profile investigations into conduct by department lawyers.
For instance, in 2023, it investigated the former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins for the District of Massachusetts and referred her for possible prosecution, after concluding she had improperly used her position to meddle in a local district attorney election by leaking to newspapers dirt about a political rival.
The Justice Department declined to pursue criminal charges in that case.
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