Judge Opens Formal Inquiry into Possible DOJ Misconduct in Trump's Golf Course Case

A federal judge in Washington is launching a formal inquiry into potential misconduct by Trump administration officials in the lawsuit over East Potomac Park, including whether they repeatedly misrepresented the president's plans for the municipal golf course in the capital.

District Judge Ana Reyes ordered Friday's hearing, the third in as many weeks, days after government lawyers acknowledged in writing on Wednesday that there is a plan to transform the municipal golf course into a championship-level venue, closing it and much of the surrounding park in mid-November.

For months, Justice Department attorneys representing the Interior Department and the National Park Service had maintained in court filings and hearings that such a plan was not yet final, despite President Donald Trump's social media statements proclaiming otherwise.

Their abrupt confirmation on Wednesday night prompted Reyes to call both sides back into court, just days after she ordered a halt to tree-clearing and major renovations at the park, which the government promptly appealed.

Reyes opened Friday's hearing by quoting D.C. Bar Rule of Professional Conduct 3.3, which prohibits lawyers from knowingly making or failing to correct false statements to the court. She asked Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., who is leading the government's defence, whether there was anything he would like to correct. Woodward said not to his knowledge, explaining that he had not read every transcript in the case and that they have lots of binders. Reyes replied that she bet they did.

Over the next four hours, Reyes questioned Woodward about the timing and status of the administration's renovation plans. She demanded to know whether officials had been truthful when they told her last Monday that they were not aware of the park closure Trump had posted about that same morning.

Reyes called the lawyers' claims into doubt for two main reasons. Government lawyers acknowledged for the first time in their Wednesday filing that the administration is closing the park next month, both for golf course renovations and to address the man-made peninsula's crumbling seawall. And they said in court that they submitted those renovation plans to the National Capital Planning Commission for review on Friday.

Under questioning, Woodward told the judge that the submission had been in the works for several weeks. Reyes fired back incredulously that no one from the government had mentioned that in previous hearings, one of which lasted seven hours. She asked whether she was to understand that for weeks someone had been putting pen to paper on a submission to design the golf course while the litigation was ongoing and Justice Department employees were representing to her that there was no plan.

The hearing ended with Reyes announcing that she would open a formal inquiry into whether agency officials and employees, including agency attorneys and Justice Department attorneys, have made misrepresentations to the court and otherwise violated applicable ethical rules. She said the inquiry may be led by a special master, whom she has not yet appointed but described as a judicial officer with full investigatory powers. If the government rejects her special master, she said she will conduct the inquiry herself.

Reyes stressed that opening an investigation does not mean the court has found or will find evidence that any government lawyers violated their professional obligations. But the relatively unusual move suggests the judge is finished taking the administration at its word, as she said she has done since local historic preservation advocates and golfers first filed suit in February.

The legal fight escalated earlier this month when the Trump administration cut down hundreds of trees with less than a day's notice. Officials have denied the tree-clearing was part of a broader plan to renovate the golf course, but Reyes called it a pretext for beginning work without proper approvals. On Friday she also ordered government officials to preserve all relevant documents so the court can conduct an inquiry without loss of evidence. She said from the bench that for months the court trusted but did not verify, and would do so no longer.

On Monday, Reyes extended her ban on further tree removal and required the government to provide 10 days' written notice before closing or irreversibly modifying East Potomac, which the administration quickly appealed. In a blistering 70-page opinion, she wrote that the case had become about much more than golf, and that rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president.

Within hours of Reyes's ruling, Trump took to social media to double down on his plan to start renovations in November, saying Reyes has absolutely no right to hold up the very important and beautiful project.

In a Justice Department filing on Wednesday night, government lawyers said the National Park Service would submit a plan on Friday to the National Capital Planning Commission to review a rendering designed by Tom Fazio for a world-class, championship-level golf course capable of hosting major events. They also said they would soon close East Potomac Park south of Buckeye Drive, including the golf course, consistent with the president's directive.

The filing says the National Park Service entered into a new lease agreement on Wednesday with the National Links Trust, the nonprofit that operates the golf course. Under the new agreement, confirmed by the trust, the organisation will continue to operate the capital's other two municipal golf courses under a 50-year lease, but cease operations at East Potomac at the close of business on or before 15 November.

But details of the plan were still hazy in the courtroom on Friday. Woodward said Trump's Truth Social posts are similar to executive orders, directing an agency to take an action but not guaranteeing it will actually occur. He said the course is not currently scheduled to close on 15 November, but the government has filed a notice of intent to close it in keeping with the judge's order requiring 10 days' written notice. He said they would never violate the court's order, drawing laughs from many spectators who filled the courtroom.

The East Potomac closure will extend far beyond the golf course, removing public access to recreational areas and much of the three-mile perimeter loop beloved by runners and cyclists. The administration says the closure is necessary regardless of the golf course renovations because of the deteriorated seawall that is crumbling into the Potomac River and is a safety hazard in a state of significant disrepair.

Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, said in an official declaration this week that the century-old seawalls have been compromised over time. As a result, large sections of the sidewalk adjacent to the seawall are underwater twice daily, and more often after extreme weather events. That has caused voids in the sidewalk and nearby grassy areas, as well as significant damage to the trees along the seawall. She said the Park Service has documented the deteriorating conditions in various reports and photographs in recent years, as recently as mid-September.

Earlier reporting noted that Trump has called the 106-year-old course 'Trash Island' and said it will be renovated over 15 months to create a space that will be open to the public while being designed to the highest level of golf and able to hold world-class tournaments. The legal dispute goes back to February, when the DC Preservation League and others sued over redevelopment plans for the park.