Judge explodes at Trump admin lawyers after trees felled at DC golf course

A federal judge repeatedly pressed for answers Monday during an hourslong hearing on who within the Trump administration ordered the abrupt removal of hundreds of trees at a Washington, D.C., public golf course over the weekend.

District of Columbia Judge Ana Reyes angrily scolded government attorneys in a hearing to block the government from cutting down more trees at East Potomac Golf Course.

"I am just at a total loss to understand what has happened here," Reyes said.   "Occam's razor time -- that the government precisely intended to do precisely what it has done, which is intentionally delaying letting the plaintiffs in the court know what was happening, so they could put a plan in place to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees."

The golf course has been the subject of litigation brought by the D.C. Preservation League in response to President Donald Trump's efforts to turn it into a course that could host professional tournaments.

Government attorneys had previously pledged to provide notice to plaintiffs in the case about any irrevocable harm that would occur at the golf course through government actions.

The government provided notice to the plaintiffs at 4:55 p.m. last Friday that tree-cutting would occur at the golf course over the Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day holiday weekend.

The National Park Service began cutting down trees on Saturday and the D.C. Preservation League, one of the plaintiffs in the case, filed for a temporary restraining order on Sunday.

Marissa Ann Piropato, a Justice Department attorney admitted to the court in Monday's hearing that 430 trees were cleared over weekend. 

Reyes exploded, "430 trees!"  

"I had said at the May hearing that I didn't want 10 trees chopped down without someone having notice," Reyes said. "On what universe did anyone in your office think that that was acceptable?"

"Your Honor, we did our best in providing notice," Piropato said.

"You did not do your best!  You did your absolute worst!," Reyes interrupted.

"More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed in the government. I have done everything humanly possible to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case. I have done it repeatedly. I have done it for months," Reyes vented. 

The government testified that the plan to cut down trees was part of a plan put in place in 2019 to remove dead, dying and hazardous trees around the golf course. 

Judge Reyes, noticeably frustrated by the government's conduct, ordered that government witnesses who could explain the how the decision to conduct tree removal with such minimal notices appear before the court immediately, including National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands.

Government  lawyers scrambled to locate NPS personnel to appear remotely under oath.

"No one else can say what the basis of the urgency was and when this idea was first identified, because we are talking now with potential multiple misrepresentation to the court and the only reason -- the only reason I have not yet entered a show cause on contempt is that I never put this in a formal order," Reyes said. "Which, believe you now, I am regretting."

Reyes extended a temporary restraining order she had issued earlier Monday barring the government from any further activity at the golf course until at least Tuesday afternoon.

Reyes also said she would be holding another hearing Tuesday to demand answers from Greg Wischer, a political appointee at the Interior Department who has been a point person on many of Trump's major D.C. beautification projects. 

Reyes says she wants clarity on who specifically gave the orders to remove the trees on Saturday and whether it was a deliberate effort to evade her previous orders issued in the case as litigation remains ongoing. 

"The questions go to whether or not I've been lied to," Reyes said during Monday's hearing. "Whether I've been lied to in declarations about the plans, whether or not I've been lied to about the timing of things ... I am beyond disappointed in the government right now. I wanted you all to be better than you have been."

Reyes had warned Justice Department lawyers of "serious consequences" if the administration began major work at the course without getting approval and notifying the court in advance.

"I'm going to say this one more time, and I do not want a situation where something has happened and then I'm being told by the government or by a foundation or by a bulldozing company that it's too late to do anything about it," she said. "If anything like that happens ... there are going to be serious consequences."

Trump promises the course, which he said will be renovated and redesigned through a public-private partnership, will be "one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World" on the site and said it will be open to the public.

Trump toured the course in June with golf course architect Peter Fazio and his son Gavin Fazio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for "studying the dilapidated, worn out, and very dangerous and outdated Golf Course known as East Potomac Golf Links." He said on his social media platform "on this fantastic site, with water and unparalleled views of D.C.'s Monuments, we will build one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World which, importantly, will also be made available to the Public."