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U.S. Atty Pirro Announces Indictment on Reflecting Pool Vandalism; Mar-a-Lago's $77M Haul Renews Major Ethics Concerns; NYC Skyscraper Climbers Arraigned on Felony Charges; Economy Adds Far Fewer Jobs, Just 57K, in June 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The citation that Mr. Hearn received suggested that he will be charged with misdemeanors, but the President, obviously, called for this to be a felony charge here. Did you ultimately decide the charge so harshly at the President's direction?

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: I didn't charge anything harshly. I charge according to the evidence. When we have witnesses, when we have the defendant on record saying things that are not true, and we have witnesses who are disinterested, who have no motive to lie, they have no agenda, they're just working there, and they are actually witnessing damage to a national monument, we're going to go forward.

Now, my office reviews all citations. Everything that the police do in this jurisdiction is reviewed by my office. We review it. This is a case with tremendous evidence, and this is a case where the evidence dictates where we land. Next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, and just to be clear, there have been other people who have been arrested for ...

PIRRO: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: this incidents at the Reflecting Pool. Are you taking all of this to the grand jury?

PIRRO: It depends on the evidence that we have. We have about a half a dozen other cases. Some of them will be misdemeanors, and some of them could be less like a -- a violation. But we're reviewing every case based upon the evidence and reviewing all of the reports. And right now, it's about another half a dozen misdemeanors.

Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. The President said that somebody took a box cutter and cut the Reflecting Pool.

PIRRO: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that new -- is there any update to that case? Is there any ...

PIRRO: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... evidence that you can point to as a follow-up?

PIRRO: You know, I was at the Reflecting Pool yesterday, and I think it's very sad. Someone intentionally did a tremendous amount of damage to the pool. And you can actually see where all the cutting is. They took a sharp object and cut for many feet along the pool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have pictures of that? Can you share it with us?

PIRRO: Well, when I file a charge, I'll be happy to show you a picture, all right? What I'm trying to do is we're trying to find out who did it, okay? And until we get to that point, I'm not going to be able to, you know, discuss anything more than there was tremendous damage that was caused.

Yes, sir. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am. Four years ago, we had that guy from Indiana who damaged the Washington Monument. He pled guilty, and he was misdemeanored. What do you try to do? Send in, like, a strong message from now on who damaged it and going to get a big penalty looks like?

PIRRO: You know, here's -- we are in a lane where it depends on the evidence. You know, if the -- if the damage can be repaired for less than a thousand dollars, it's a misdemeanor. If it costs a lot more than a thousand dollars, then we're at the felony level. It's up to the judge to decide what the sentence is after a jury looks at the case.

My job is to look at the evidence and to bring it to a grand jury who agreed that this should be a felony based upon the evidence that they heard, and they returned a true bill that this person should be charged with this felony. One more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for your time today. How do you square charging this alleged poor people when it's the same justice department that ...

PIRRO: Already this is problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... within, you know, over a thousand January 6th rioters who caused millions of dollars of damage (INAUDIBLE) ...

PIRRO: Are you really talking about January 6th?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I mean ...

PIRRO: I'm not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... there's a thousand (INAUDIBLE) ...

PIRRO: Okay. Who's next? Not you. No. Yes, you again. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could you please explain the bench warrant that was issued for his arrest? Is Mr. Hearn being arrested today?

PIRRO: Do we have a ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's not ...

PIRRO: Yes. He's not being arrested. No. Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do the grand -- do the grand jury unanimously turn to the ...

PIRRO: I don't take a check of unanimous versus not unanimous, and as soon as they give me a right to do that, I'd be happy to do that, but I don't have that right. Thank you, everybody. Have a great Fourth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) environment ahead of the Fourth, is there -- is there anything you're tracking?

PIRRO: I -- I'm not -- I'm not tracking anything in terms of threat environment. I hope -- I'm not tracking anything in terms of threat environment. We're all hoping that Americans are able to celebrate whether they're in D.C. or around the country. I mean, this is a wonderful, wonderful holiday. It's not just any Fourth of July. This is a big one. And I hope you and your families. I hope you don't have to work, everybody. And I hope you can enjoy. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) do you have any cases you're reviewing on parents (INAUDIBLE) ...

PIRRO: Yes, yes, we've reviewed a few.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... think you might be able to bring.

PIRRO: We've reviewed several of them. I'll probably do a presser on that in the future. Thank you. All right, everybody. Happy Fourth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: So, you've just been listening to Jeanine Pirro, the U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Speaking about this indictment of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was arrested at the Reflecting Pool last month, I believe it was June 19th.

[15:05:08]

He's now facing at least one felony charge, we're told of destruction of property. And that is because we're told by Jeanine Pirro that the damage that was done to the pool would result in more than a thousand dollars' worth of damage, thus prompting this this charge. They had sent the evidence to the grand jury. Just a couple of specifics that I want to share with you that we heard

from the attorney here. She's called this unchecked vandalism and civil disorder, which turned into criminal behavior. Talking about this specific act. She claims that Hearn ripped a piece of recently installed sealant that was on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool, and she says that the evidence shows Hearn willfully destroyed that property that he, according to her, admitted to reaching down into the pool that parks employees reportedly told him to stop what he was doing.

She says that he then shouted at the employee that the employee cared too much about the Reflecting Pool and questioned why the employee would care so much since the pool didn't belong to her, characterized the behavior by Hearn as belligerent, rude and disrespectful, according to these parks employees, and said that it was a violent effort using both hands, according to Jeanine Pirro, to rip this off of the bottom of the pool.

I want to bring in now Katelyn Polantz Polansky, who's been following this for us, along with retired FBI supervisory agent Richard Kolko. So, we also heard from Jeanine Pirro. She was asked specifically about wasn't there damage before? Was this pulling up something that was already perhaps already coming loose? She didn't answer that question, whether there was a tool or bare hands, because the President claims somebody went in with a knife, right, and damaged it. She said bare hands, but that the damage resulted in about two square feet, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. What is really interesting and how they're presenting this is they're trying to make an example of David Hearn here. She did say exactly that two square feet of sealant is what he is accused of damaging. And they say that they have witnesses that could testify at a trial who had seen this happen.

Now, when Donald Trump described the slit in the Reflecting Pool, he said it was 350 feet long and the Reflecting Pool itself is 350,000 square feet. That's really big. And two square feet of sealant is a very, very, very small piece of that. They're saying that the amount of damage there that David Hearn is accused of -- of -- of providing or of -- of damaging is worth more than a thousand dollars of hurting private property or federal property.

Clearly, she also is leaning into the witnesses who believe that he was being belligerent, rude and disrespectful. Although I will say that is not a crime.

HILL: Well, that's what I was going to -- going to say to you in terms of

-- and -- and I could see, Richard, you're reacting to some of that during -- during this press conference. It is not a crime to be rude or disrespectful, right?

RICHARD KOLKO, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: No.

HILL: Perhaps, you know, we wouldn't like to see it, but that is not a crime. I thought it was interesting to, you know, she had said repeatedly, we can prove this beyond a reasonable doubt. He caused this damage. That evidence is going to be key here. She did not really answer a question was asked more specifically about evidence asked about pictures because this came up at the time. How critical is that to proving this beyond a reasonable doubt?

KOLKO: I think -- I think the investigation here is going to be fairly simple. The issue of do you charge him for this crime? Should he face this serious of penalties? That's a whole different issue. But the fact of the matter is they're going to be able to build a timeline. They're going to get photography. They've got the witness interviews. They've got forensic evidence.

So, if you're even a junior investigator and this is your case, did somebody vandalize the pool? I think building that case file will be fairly simple enough that they had enough to go to the grand jury, get that indictment now. And now the investigator, whatever investigative team is assigned, this case will continue the investigation. Fill that out. The -- the attorney, the prosecutor will want to see the entire case file before they go forward with that.

HILL: She was also asked specifically, did you charge -- decide to charge harshly at the President's request? Because the President was -- was very upset about this at the time, right? And as -- as we mentioned -- you mentioned before the press conference started, he had said at the time this is a serious charge. You could be facing 10 years of prison.

POLANTZ: And that's the charge that they went with here. Now, she said no immediately whenever that question was asked by our producer, Casey Gannon, who was in the room at that press conference and Pirro, she's knocking that down. But she also is leaning into this idea that there should be accountability for damaging a national treasure. That sounds very like something that Donald Trump has been saying since we were seeing this happening.

And then, also, she's saying that her and was being violent in the way that he grabbed at the -- the ...

HILL: Yes.

POLANTZ: ... cover of the reflecting point.

HILL: I mean, that's the word she used, right? She said forcefully ...

POLANTZ: She said violently several times.

HILL: ... and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner. It was interesting because she did, as you point out, she talked a lot at the beginning of this press conference about the importance of maintaining these national monuments that they belong to all Americans.

[15:10:01]

You know, she talked about having vivid memories of -- of seeing destruction. This is not the way a civilized society should act. This is anarchy, in her words. There was a reporter who, it seemed, was attempting to ask her a question about January 6 because I think it does lead to a question about, right, destruction of property. We look at what happened on January 6. She shut that down. She wouldn't even allow a question.

POLANTZ: Right. Her quote was -- at the very beginning, she said, I have vivid memory from years ago of a national monument being defaced. What is she talking about?

HILL: It's not clear what she's talking about? Exactly. She did talk about ropes and pulling things down. It's not clear what she was referencing. Yes.

POLANTZ: It's quite a ...

KOLKO: Yes.

POLANTZ: ... case that they've charged. And I'm -- I've been looking at the court documents this whole time while Jeanine Pirro is speaking, and there's very little that they have said in court -- in the indictment. It's not a -- a lengthy indictment. It's one line that says he's charged with this crime.

HILL: And just to be clear, we have not -- I know you're -- I know you're reaching out, but we haven't yet heard back from Richard (sic) Hearn's attorneys, correct?

POLANTZ: Not at the moment. I'm -- I'm waiting to see what they may say in response to this. Sometimes attorneys will only respond in court.

HILL: Sure.

POLANTZ: We know that previously Hearn has said he was -- he was being curious. He wasn't vandalizing this. And they have also said there's not evidence here. One thing that she didn't mention that I was listening for is whether or not they had video ...

HILL: Right.

POLANTZ: ... or photos of this -- of him in the act. And when she was asked about the evidence, she said she did not want to get into evidence, but there were witnesses.

HILL: Witnesses.

POLANTZ: Yes.

HILL: And then she said, come to the trial.

POLANTZ: Yes.

HILL: So,, there we go. We'll wait and see, I guess, what the evidence is. Wait for more developments on this. Great to have both of you with us here as we walk through it. Katelyn and Richard, thank you.

KOLKO: Thank you.

HILL: Scrutiny is growing today when it comes to President Trump's wealth and just how much it grew during his first year back in office. Americans are learning more about that number, more than a billion dollars from crypto alone. And there's also new reporting today about his properties and just how much money those are bringing in. Take a look specifically at Mar-a-Lago, $77 million in 2025. That's up 50 percent from what it earned in 2024.

It's important to note that dues have also spiked to join the private club. In 2016, you're looking at a \hundred-thousand-dollar initiation fee. In 2024, that's skyrocketed to a million dollars. CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House.

Kevin, walk us through what else we're learning from this disclosure.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And I think it's so interesting because in a lot of ways, those insane crypto revenues kind of obscured how successful the president's more traditional businesses actually have been since he came back into office. You know, the resorts, the properties, the real estate sort of where President Trump made his name and reputation.

And we took a look at two properties. One was Mar-a-Lago. The other is the Doral Club in -- in Miami. And both of them have seen sort of skyrocketing incomes over the last year. You know, you took a look at Mar-a-Lago that's 77 and a half million dollars that it took in last year. It's an enormous jump from last year, but it's also an enormous jump from the President's first term when it was bringing in around 20 million dollars a year.

When it comes to Doral during the President's first term, it was making around $75 million a year. Last year, Doral brought in $122 million. And the reasons for this increase are multifold. One is the spike in membership dues. You mentioned the million dollar mark that Mar-a-Lago crossed for its initiation fee just before President Trump came back into office. And of course, members also have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to keep that membership every year.

There's also, you know, increased interest in these memberships by people who are looking to get close to President Trump. You know, he's at this club almost every weekend in the winter. He's having dinner on the patio. You can't necessarily walk up to him, but if he wants to have a conversation with you, he can. And that's, I think, of enormous interest to people who want to get in front of the President with their business.

You also see political committees using these clubs for fundraisers and candidates using these clubs for fundraisers. And so, for example, Mar-a-Lago and Doral, the RNC spent more than a million dollars at each of those clubs over the last year. All, I think, under -- underlining the massive increase in revenues that they have seen since President Trump came back into office.

HILL: Yes, certainly a lot of information in this disclosure. Kevin, really appreciate it. Thank you. Still ahead this hour, new details explain -- new details behind the

couple who was able to climb up on the top of the Empire State Building for their stunt, as you see here.

Also ahead, after a spring surge, the latest June jobs report, missing expectations. We're going to dig into those numbers ahead. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:14:47]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:07]

HILL: We have new details on the couple who was arrested after scaling to the top of the Empire State Building for this stunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN KUZNETSOV: People are nice (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police are nice to you?

KUZNETSOV: Police are nice, very nice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, that is Ivan Kuznetsov and Angela Nikolau walking out of court earlier today after being arraigned on federal charges which include reckless endangerment. Prosecutors said at the hearing that Kuznetsov told NYPD he wanted to do something, quote, "special" for his engagement.

Around noon yesterday they climbed up more than 1,400 feet above New York City. There they are atop the antennas of the Empire State Building dressed in black and masks as you see unfurling that banner which read: "When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace."

[15:19:59]

And then, after they started to climb down on the first platform there, Kuznetsov set up what appeared to be a selfie stick for what also appeared to be a proposal. Air traffic control audio captured a police chopper pilot who explained what was going on. It's a very New York moment take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes what's all the hoopla going on over there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two geniuses climb to the top of the Empire State Building at the top of the spire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that's awesome. It's a little hot for that, isn't it? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the beginning of this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Just the beginning of this week. A source telling CNN the pair had actually hidden inside the building the day before the stunt in ordered to gain access to the restricted area. You see some of their social media posts after their stunt. CNN's John Miller joining us now with more on the story.

I mean look there are plenty of jokes, plenty of memes. The reality is these are very serious charges and part of those charges stem from the lengths that this couple took for this stunt.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, that's right, Erica. They came in on Tuesday night as ticketed visitors to the Empire State Building's observatory. They went through the security screening and then somewhere between the time that they stop allowing visitors up there about 11 o'clock and midnight when they clear everybody out they apparently hid. Investigators believe in a utility room and through the video canvas they did of their own security cameras you know now you see them, now you don't and that's when they went off -- went off camera.

But at 5:04 A.M. they have a piece of video of a hatch in the floor opening. It probably comes from a ladder and they enter I believe the 102nd floor. There's some cables that they were able to disengage from the wall that blocked that final stairway that goes up to the entrance to the spire and then a couple of locks that were cut at the top.

So that's why the charges are criminal mischief for climbing the spire, burglary for breaking in past the cables and the locks and reckless endangerment for the hazard they caused.

HILL: There are also -- so you -- as you -- as you walk through the charges there the charges as I understand it are not bill eligible. So, what does this mean their next hearing I believe is August 24th?

MILLER: Well, that's right. Under the New York State criminal justice reform laws passed in 2020, the state legislature took a number of charges including felony charges and there's felony charges here and said they're not eligible for bail. Meaning, a judge is barred by law from setting bail in that case because they're considered non-violent crime. So, they were basically released under court supervision which means they have to check in at a determinate number of times with -- with the New York City court system to make sure that they're still here and they're going to keep their court dates. But, they will face other hearings and they're facing serious charges. And it cost the city a lot of money.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. John Miller appreciate it, my friend, thank you.

Ahead here we're going to dig into the June jobs report that overall number falling short of expectations. What are the signals from this report about the state of the economy? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:44]

HILL: The latest job report shows hiring slowed significantly in June. Just 57,000 jobs were added. Economists had been expecting a hundred thousand. The unemployment rate did meet expectations. That takes down to 4.2 percent. But what else can we glean from this latest report. Economist Justin Wolfers is with us. He's professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. Nice to see you again.

So, when we look at this -- the expectation a hundred thousand, we saw 57,000 jobs added. That is a significant gap. What does that tell you about the labor market itself?

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROF. OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Yes so each -- each month we just learn a little bit more about the economy. You've got to remember these are very noisy data. So, let me take you back a month which is we'd seen a few really, really good months and it was a yabba-dabba-doo moment. I was very excited and what we see here is that maybe we shouldn't have been so excited.

This is an economy that is not hot the way we might have thought a month ago. That's the way we -- I think you might want to revise your views, but also it's not an economy that's sinking by any means. This is an economy that's treading water. It's doing okay. Let's cross our fingers and try not to do anything wrong and hopefully we'll keep it.

HILL: So, in terms of treading water I have to say one of the numbers that stood out to me was the leisure and hospitality industry shedding 61,000 jobs. I know as you point out -- I mean this is a snapshot, right, we have to keep putting all the data together every month. But given that we are, of course, a consumer-based economy given what it means to go to a restaurant could -- to go to a hotel, the fact that 61,000 leisure and hospitality jobs were lost. How does that figure into the overall picture?

WOLFERS: Yes. So, not only do we lose jobs in leisure and hospitality, we did that while hosting the World Cup. That's a bit of a double whammy because you might have thought that, you know, people coming over watching a few football games and by the way watching the U.S. play some terrific football, you might have thought that would boost the economy.

The other sector to really keep your eyes on though is health care and social services. That sector alone is responsible for all of the job growth in the United States since January of 2025. If you took that one sector out, health care and social assistance, the rest of the economy's actually been shrinking.

[15:30:01]

Ours is an economy that's shifting to -- away from making stuff and towards services.

HILL: Right. But there was actually ...