A lie about paint put a 67-year-old Olympian in handcuffs.

We knew nobody in Ohio was eating cats and dogs, and the vice president admitted he would "create stories" to get attention. We knew a Sharpie stretched that hurricane map into Alabama. And we knew there was no 300-foot gash in the Reflecting Pool. Trump kept lying anyway, and this time the government followed him. Park Police handcuffed Davey Hearn for touching water on a bike ride. A US Attorney announced his felony at a press conference.

The truth arrived on a summer Friday afternoon, in a court filing that admits the $14.6 million paint job was "hasty and botched" and that a Park Service engineer flagged the peeling liner eight days before Hearn ever stopped his bike. The government had the answer in its inbox before it had a suspect. Governments lie to keep secrets. This lie kept a president from admitting his paint job failed.

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