Judge refuses DOJ’s demand to step aside from golf course hearing

A federal judge refused the Justice Department’s (DOJ) demand to step aside from a key hearing on Monday over the future of East Potomac Park, which President Trump wants to renovate into a championship-style golf course.

The Trump administration has accused U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of bias after she yelled at a government attorney last week to express disappointment that hundreds of trees were cut down at the park without additional notice.

The DOJ accused her of “violating the basic norms” that a judge be fair and impartial.

“It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion. But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record,” Reyes wrote in a 13-page opinion denying the effort late Sunday.

“By any objective measure, the Government fails to meet the standard for recusal,” she continued.

Reyes, an appointee of former President Biden who serves on the federal bench in the nation’s capital, oversees a lawsuit brought by a preservationist group and individual golfers.

They challenge Trump’s desire for a massive renovation at East Potomac Park that would shift it into a championship-style golf course, saying the project is unlawful. The president unveiled a new plan for the site on Sunday.

“The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Monday.

The lawsuit has been ongoing for months, but tensions reached a new high after the administration informed the judge on a Friday afternoon that hundreds of trees would be cut down that weekend.

The judge has said she’s furious and disappointed with the government for not providing her additional notice before the landscaping, and she has since blocked any additional tree-clearing.

The Justice Department in demanding her recusal took issue with the judge’s heated rhetoric — at one point she asked a government lawyer if they were unable to use a phone or drive a car — as well as her demands that Trump administration witnesses show up on a federal holiday to testify before her.

“The Government created an emergent situation. The Court responded,” Reyes pushed back.