Getty ImagesA US judge said on Friday that she will launch an investigation into whether justice department lawyers deceived her about President Donald Trump’s plans for renovating a golf course.
Trump has posted on social media that the East Potomac Golf Course would be closed in November for several months for the renovations, despite an ongoing legal challenge.
The judge is looking into whether the administration’s last-minute notification to her about removing trees from the course was made in bad faith, and if government lawyers misrepresented Trump’s renovation plans.
Trump, an avid golfer, has said his plans will create “one of the Best and Most Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World”.
The legal dispute goes back to February, when the DC Preservation League and others sued over redevelopment plans for the park.
It escalated this month when the National Park Service began to cut down hundreds of trees without notifying the judge presiding over the lawsuit, US District Judge Ana Reyes, until 15 hours before work was set to begin on a holiday weekend.
After the trees were cut, Reyes ordered the Trump administration to stop tree removal until at least 26 October and give her three business days’ notice about making any other permanent changes.
In a 70-page ruling this week, she extended that order and also barred the administration from making further alterations to the course without ten days’ notice while the lawsuit proceeds. The administration has notified the court it intends to appeal that ruling, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Despite the court-ordered block, Trump had recently announced that the course would be closed for 15 months beginning in November to accommodate the renovations. He also shared a rendering of the course redesign.
Government lawyers this week confirmed to Reyes that the course would be closed for renovations, after telling her earlier there were no plans to shutter it.
Reyes took a harsh tone with the lawyers at Friday’s hearing, repeatedly questioning when they had knowledge of the plan to close the golf course.
At one point, she asked whether the Secretary of the Interior was involved in the project.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward – the number three official at the justice department – responded by asking what she meant by “involved”.
Reyes then read the definition of the word from a dictionary.
At the end of the hearing, Reyes said she would be investigating whether the justice department attorneys “have made misrepresentations to the court and otherwise violated ethical rules”.
That included whether giving late notice to the court about the renovation plans was “done in bad faith” and whether the attorneys failed to correct previously false statements or withheld information.
She said she would carry out the inquiry with a special master, an independent third party. In the US, judges appoint special master to carry out investigations or other provide other legal work related to cases and disputes.
