By Blake Brittain
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – US District Judge Ana Reyes on Friday ordered an investigation into whether Department of Justice attorneys violated ethics rules in their defense of a lawsuit filed over President Donald Trump’s planned renovation of a Washington-area golf course.
Reyes expressed concerns during a hearing in Washington federal court that the attorneys had misrepresented the government’s intention to continue with the renovation of the East Potomac Golf Links after she temporarily blocked the project.
Reyes grilled DOJ attorney Stanley Woodward for more than two hours over potentially contradictory statements by Trump and the department’s lawyers about the government’s intentions. She said she was concerned the attorneys had provided “materially misleading information” and omitted other relevant information about the administration’s plans, and appointed a special master to investigate further.
Reyes also ordered the attorneys to preserve relevant documents.
“For months, the court trusted but did not verify,” Reyes said. “No longer.”
Trump’s renovation of the golf course is one of several projects the president is pursuing to reshape landmarks in the US capital. The DC Preservation League sued in February to halt the administration’s takeover of the course, alleging that it would violate environmental laws and “irreparably destroy a priceless piece of American history.”
Reyes said in May that the government must provide advance notice of any substantive construction work at the course. After the administration removed hundreds of trees without notice in October, she issued a temporary order blocking further tree removal and said defiance would result in proceedings to determine whether government officials should be held in contempt.
Trump later said his administration would begin renovation work immediately, despite the judge’s order. Reyes extended her order days later, after which Trump said in an online post that his administration would close the course site “as scheduled on November 15th in order to renovate and rebuild.”
Reyes has said the government had asked her to disregard Trump’s statements about the renovation plans. The Department of Justice has told the court that no final plan exists to replace the course.
“The third-highest ranking official in the Department of Justice is telling a federal court that he cannot say, when the president has said ‘the course will close on November 15,’ what he meant was, ‘the course will close on November 15?’” Reyes asked Woodward during the hearing.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)
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