Justice Department attorneys received an earful at a Monday hearing for a temporary restraining order in the case over President Donald Trump’s plan to convert Washington’s historic public golf course into a championship showcase — with the federal judge furiously demanding to know why the government cut down hundreds of trees over the weekend without adequate notice.
“You know why I’m furious right now? I was hearing from everybody on plaintiffs’ side that this was going to happen and I said repeatedly, no, I trust the government,” Judge Ana Reyes told DOJ lawyers. “I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done.”
On Friday evening before the holiday weekend, the federal government announced it would down 529 trees the following day and has the intention to cut down hundreds more at East Potomac Golf Links. Reyes said the removal was unacceptable, because she demanded back in May that the government provide advance notice of any substantial construction at the site.
“I am thoroughly unamused,” she said Monday.
The D.C. Preservation League, which filed the February lawsuit over the project, asked Reyes on Sunday to issue an emergency order blocking any further tree removal and requiring advance notice of any other major changes.
Nathan Howard via Associated Press
Reyes imposed the temporary pause on the Justice Department’s tree removal at the golf course until Tuesday morning, saying that if her current order is violated by “even two seconds,” there will be contempt proceedings. She said that failure to notify the preservationist group of the Saturday removal work “has cost the government all of its credibility” in the case.
Reyes demanded to know who ordered the weekend removal and how long government attorneys knew of the plan. Lawyers said they first learned of it on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and learned about a day later that it would specifically happen on Saturday.
“Do you have email accounts? Do you have cell phones? Do you have regular phones? Do you have the ability to get into a car and go to where plaintiffs are and tell them?” she asked the government of its efforts to notify plaintiffs.
The judge flatly rejected the administration’s claims that it had done all it could to notify the plaintiffs of the tree removal.
“You did not do your best,” Reyes said. “You did your absolute worst.”
Last year, the president announced a plan to overhaul the century-old public golf course, which is owned by the federal government and managed by the Interior Department’s National Park Service. The preservation league’s lawsuit accused Trump of violating environmental laws to “irreparably destroy a priceless piece of American history.”
Kevin Greiss, the Biden-appointed superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks under NPS, took the stand during the hearing. Greiss said the tree removal was part of a 2019 plan that NPS suddenly decided to carry out last week and predates Trump’s golf course project.
Since taking office, Trump has targeted multiple U.S. cultural and historical institutions, including monuments and national parks, in an attempt to reconstruct them to his personal taste.