A federal judge opened an investigation Friday into whether Asset administration officials repeatedly misled her about the president’s plans to close and redevelop a golf course in Washington, DC.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the investigation after weeks of growing exasperationas she sought to discern when the administration began implementing a plan to close the East Potomac Golf Course on November 15. It’s a central question in a conservation group’s lawsuit seeking to block the renovation altogether.
Reyesappointed by Biden, said her investigation would focus on whether the administration acted in “bad faith” throughout the litigation and whether Justice Department and Interior Department lawyers induced witnesses to omit crucial information in their sworn statements to the court.
Misconduct investigation raises stakes in conflict that has already drawn the president’s fury Donald Trump himself, who recently attacked Reyes in several social media posts for his decisions in the case. And the affair also forced some of the most senior figures in the Justice and Interior ministries to mobilize to defend the president’s prized project. This effort included a motion to disqualify Reyes of the case and called her biased against the administration — an accusation she denied, saying her frustration was not the product of bias, but of repeated error.
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