Judge opens investigation into whether Trump officials misled court in DC golf course case

Washington- A federal judge said Friday she was opening an investigation into whether government officials and lawyers made false statements in court and violated ethics rules during proceedings over President Trump’s plans to renovate a historic landmark. golf course in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said at a hearing that she would conduct the review herself but would be assisted by a special master, a neutral arbiter, to determine whether officials and attorneys from the Justice and Interior departments engaged in misconduct.

The judge said she would consider several issues, including whether a notice filed with her court regarding the imminent felling of trees at East Potomac Golf Links was done in bad faith. Justice Department lawyers informed the court of the felling hours before crews began cutting down hundreds of trees on the course earlier this month.

Reyes will examine whether government lawyers asked Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, to omit certain information from a statement about possible plans to overhaul the golf course. She will also examine whether government lawyers asked Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, to include certain budget resource information in a statement.

The investigation is also focusing on statements by Justice Department lawyers regarding East Potomac Golf Links renovation plans. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told the court Wednesday that the Trump administration plans to close all of East Potomac Park, which includes the golf course, a surrounding road and a recreation area, by Nov. 15.

Woodward also provided the court with a rendering for the new course, designed by golf course architect Tom Fazio, which was submitted Friday to the National Capital Planning Commission.

The judge has not yet named the special master and has given the Justice Department five days to object to her decision to appoint one.

Reyes stressed that no wrongdoing was found. Instead, she said she was simply conducting an investigation to determine whether there was any misconduct.

The judge is overseeing a case brought by a local preservation league and two local golfers challenging the Trump administration’s plans to renovate East Potomac, a public course that has been operating in Washington since the 1920s.

Interior Department 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 an Oct. 18 Truth Social article that the Interior Department and Fazio “had developed a plan to build a world-class championship golf course on the site.”

The president said work on the new route would begin Nov. 15, the date East Potomac closes. He said again Monday that his administration would “close the East Potomac Golf Course site as scheduled on November 15 in order to renovate and rebuild it for reasons of competitiveness (along with other similar projects!), safety, modernization and aesthetics.”

Woodward told the court As of Wednesday, the Interior Ministry is working on a plan to close the golf course next month.

At a hearing Friday, Reyes repeatedly pressed Woodward about Mr. Trump’s statements and for information about what he knew about the plan to close the course. Earlier in the week, she issued longer-term relief barring the Trump administration from cutting down trees on the East Potomac Golf Course while the case over its future continues.