On Friday, Aug. 1 -- WASHINGTON - David Hearn had done nothing unusual when he stopped his bicycle near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in early summer and ran his fingers along the edge of the blue coating that was already peeling away. The three-time US Olympic canoeist did not think much of it. Within weeks, federal prosecutors had indicted him on criminal vandalism charges carrying a potential 10-year prison sentence.

the pool had not been vandalized. It had been incompetently renovated.

The motion closes one of the stranger episodes in the Trump administration's summer of spectacle. In late May, the administration handed a $13.1 million contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings without competitive bidding to coat the Lincoln Me...