Judge opens East Potomac Park probe into potential DOJ misconduct

A federal judge has opened an investigation into concerns that the Trump administration lied to her in the ongoing legal battle over President Trump’s desire to redevelop East Potomac Golf Links.

Friday’s hearing became the latest fiery courtroom clash between U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes and the Department of Justice (DOJ), which repeatedly took issue with the judge’s lines of questioning and pushed back on any suggestion that information was wrongly withheld.

“The court will open a formal inquiry into whether agency officials and employees, including agency attorneys and DOJ attorneys, have made misrepresentations to the court and otherwise violated ethical rules,” the judge said.

A preservationist group and local golfers are suing to stop major redevelopments at East Potomac Park, the longtime home of a public golf course along the edge of the nation’s capital. Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to redevelop it into a championship-style course, and in recent days, he has said the site will close beginning Nov. 15 so the project can proceed.

The president’s comments — and recent work to cut down hundreds of trees — have escalated the legal fight.

In a flurry of recent hearings in Reyes’s courtroom, the judge whom former President Biden appointed has repeatedly torn into DOJ attorneys about their representations on the status of the project, suggesting they were telling her something different and not to believe the president.

Reyes began on Friday by reminding the DOJ’s No. 3 official, Stanley Woodward, about professional ethics rules he is bound to follow as an attorney practicing before the court. As they continued to spar, the judge at one point told Woodward to “finish that thought internally” and to “talk about it at drinks with your friends.”

“We’re not on TV. I’m not a pundit,” Woodward pushed back at another point, also suggesting some of the judge’s questioning was blocked under executive privilege.

The judge announced she was opening the investigation after learning that the government has been working to submit the redesign plan to the National Capital Planning Commission, which examines major government projects in the Washington area. Reyes expressed frustration that the DOJ hadn’t previously told her about it. She said she’ll conduct the investigation herself or appoint a special master to do so.

As of now, the judge has restricted further tree-clearing at the golf course and has implemented new notice requirements, but she hasn’t yet outright blocked the planned closure.

“Trust but verify … no longer,” Reyes warned the government.