WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington said Friday she will investigate whether Trump administration officials and Justice Department lawyers misled her court about plans to remake the public golf course at East Potomac Park.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes announced the inquiry at the end of a four-hour hearing, her third on the case in three weeks. She plans to bring in a special master to help, and gave the Justice Department five days to object. The judge was careful to say nothing improper has been established yet.
Among the questions she will examine is whether a notice about tree removal at East Potomac Golf Links was filed in bad faith, since it reached the court only hours before crews began cutting hundreds of trees.
For months, lawyers for the Interior Department and National Park Service told the court no renovation plan was final. In a Wednesday filing they acknowledged the park will close in mid-November, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the closure would come by Nov. 15. A design by course architect Tom Fazio was filed Friday with the National Capital Planning Commission.
The lawsuit was filed by a local preservation group and two golfers. The course has been open to the public since the 1920s.
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