A federal judge tore up the Asset Monday for cutting down hundreds of trees at the East Potomac Golf Course over the weekend with only a few hours’ notice in court and preservation activists suing to block President Donald Trump’s plan to turn the site into a championship course.
During an unusual holiday hearing that lasted nearly four hours, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said the abrupt move violated an agreement she had with Justice Department lawyers that no major renovation work would proceed without giving the court time to deal with it.
“I trusted you all not to do exactly what you did,” said a “furious” Reyes ” said in chastising the Trump administration’s lawyers, saying they had “lost their credibility” by defying his clear instructions. “There’s no excuse for that.”
This obvious frustration led the Biden-appointed judge to mount a real-time effort, along with lawyers from the DC Preservation League, to piece together how the plan to cut down more than 400 trees was implemented Saturday. DOJ Lawyers officially informed the court of the move Friday shortly before 5 p.m., as government offices closed for the holiday weekend.
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