Washington — A federal judge on Friday said she is opening an inquiry into whether government officials and lawyers made misrepresentations to the court and violated ethics rules during proceedings over President Trump’s plans to renovate a historic golf course in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during a hearing she will conduct the examination herself, but will be assisted by a special master, a neutral arbiter, to determine whether officials and lawyers at the Departments of Justice and Interior engaged in misconduct.
The judge said she will examine several issues, including whether a notice filed to her court about impending tree removals at East Potomac Golf Links was done in bad faith. Justice Department lawyers informed the court about the felling hours before crews began cutting down hundreds of trees at the course earlier this month.
Reyes will look into whether government lawyers instructed Jessica Bowron, the acting director of the National Park Service, to omit certain information from a declaration about potential plans to overhaul the golf course. She will also examine whether government lawyers told Kevin Griess, superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, to include certain information about budgetary resources in a declaration.
Another focus of the inquiry centers on statements from Justice Department lawyers about plans to renovate East Potomac Golf Links. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told the court Wednesday that the Trump administration planned to close all of East Potomac Park, which includes the golf course, a surrounding road and recreation area, by Nov. 15.
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Woodward also provided the court a rendering for new course, designed by golf course architect Tom Fazio, which was submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission on Friday.
The judge has not yet appointed the special master and has given the Justice Department five days to object to her move to name one.
Reyes stressed that there has not been any finding of wrongdoing. Instead, she said she is simply conducting an inquiry into whether there has been misconduct.
The judge is overseeing a case brought by a local preservation league and two local golfers challenging the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul East Potomac, a public course that has been operating in Washington since the 1920s.
Department of Interior officials and Justice Department lawyers have repeatedly told Reyes that there is no finalized plan for the course, including as recently as this month. But Mr. Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Oct. 18 that the Department of Interior and Fazio “developed a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site.”
The president said work on the new course would start Nov. 15, when East Potomac would close. He said again Monday that his administration is “closing the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th in order to renovate and rebuild for Competitive (with other such projects!), Safety, Modernization, and Aesthetic reasons.”
Woodward told the court Wednesday that the Interior Department is working on a plan to close the golf course next month.
During a hearing Friday, Reyes repeatedly pressed Woodward about Mr. Trump’s declarations and for information about what he knew about the plan to shutter the course. Earlier in the week, she issued longer-term relief barring the Trump administration from cutting down trees at the East Potomac golf course while the case involving its future continues.
