Judge tears into Trump administration for felling trees on D.C. golf course the president wants to remake
NBC News · LC · trust 45/100
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said lawyers for the government had assured her the administration would give her ample warning if it planned any “irreversible” actions at East Potomac Golf Links, only to chop down over 400 trees on the course over the weekend without proper notice.
“I’m furious,” Reyes told attorneys from the Justice Department.
“I was hearing from everyone on plaintiffs’ side this was going to happen. I said repeatedly, ‘No, I trust the government.’ I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done,” the judge said. She called the government’s actions “inexcusable.”
“What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility,” Reyes added.
An attorney for the government, Marissa Piropato, said it gave notice in a court filing shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, the beginning of the three-day holiday weekend. The work began the next morning, with 430 trees being removed.
Piropato told the judge “we did our best” to notify the court and the plaintiff in the case, the DC Preservation League.
“You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” the judge snapped.
Crews cut down trees on East Potomac Golf Links on Saturday as golfers continue to use the course. Aaron Schwartz / Getty The judge issued an order early Monday temporarily barring any other trees from being removed until at least Tuesday, and called an emergency hearing with just hours’ notice, despite it being a federal court holiday.
Reyes had previously made clear she did not want to issue a restraining order in the case — “I am not the Lorax . I do not speak for the trees. I am a judge,” she proclaimed at a hearing last month — but said the government’s actions had left her no choice.
She called in two officials from the National Park Service to testify virtually about the speed of the government’s actions. Both said the plan came together in the last week, and one, Deputy Director for Operations Frank Lands, said he’d been directed to begin executing it by Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
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Reyes ordered Wischer to testify at the hearing, but attorneys said they were unable to immediately find him. The judge ordered him to appear Tuesday and kept the restraining order in place until then.
The other official who testified, Superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks Kevin Griess, said workers had identified about 300 more trees that still need to be cut down.
The judge said at the end of the hearing that she felt she’d been lied to by the government.
She noted that the officials said the plan had essentially been greenlighted on Oct. 5, and that the NPS comptroller filed a sworn document in court the next day saying the agency has “no intent to commence significant rehabilitation work until all applicable compliance requirements have been satisfied.”
The plaintiffs in the case filed suit earlier this year, following reports President Donald Trump planned to transform the 100-year-old greens into a…
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