Saturday, November 7, 2026
A federal judge said on Saturday that she intends to appoint a special master to investigate whether the Trump administration's own lawyers misled her in the lawsuit over the planned rebuild of East Potomac Golf Links, the historic public course on the Potomac River in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she will name Jessie Liu — who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia during President Donald Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2020 — to examine whether officials with the Interior Department and the National Park Service and attorneys with the Justice Department violated ethics rules or misled her during the case. The lawsuit was filed in February by the DC Preservation League and two golfers challenging the renovation.
Reyes, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, said she wants to know whether federal officials lied about the extent of the renovation plans during months of hearings. "The question goes to whether or not I have been lied to, whether I have been lied to in declarations about the plans, whether I have been lied to about the timing of things," she said.
The judge announced at a hearing on October 30 that she was starting a formal investigation of the government's conduct. She ordered that hearing after Trump's Truth Social posts indicated there were renovation plans, with construction expected to begin November 15 — while administration officials, questioned by the judge, could not confirm the existence of the plans. On October 28, the Justice Department filed a notice confirming that the renovation plans were real.
The administration plans to close the East Potomac Golf Course and the surrounding park on November 15 to build what Trump has called a "World Class, championship-level golf course that is capable of hosting major events," in a renovation expected to take about 15 months. More than 400 trees were removed at the course earlier in October. An injunction Reyes issued last month temporarily bars the government from removing or damaging any more trees, and requires 10 days' notice in writing before any "irreparable modification" to the course while the lawsuit is active.
Both sides may file written responses to the planned appointment of Liu by Friday, November 13, when the next hearing in the case is scheduled. The preservation groups are also seeking an order that would stop the administration from closing the course on November 15. David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said a judge's decision to start a formal investigation into the conduct of participants in a case "can be a precursor to holding someone in contempt of court."
For ordinary Washington golfers and park users, the stakes are direct: this is a public course, and the fight decides whether it closes for 15 months — and whether the government told the truth in court before taking it away. The special master exists to protect the public's interest in honest dealing by its own government: if officials misled the judge, an independent investigator, herself a former top prosecutor from Trump's own first administration, will establish what actually happened.
— Previously posted on Sunday, October 19, 2026 —
Sunday, October 18, 2026
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that East Potomac Golf Links, the historic public course in Washington, D.C., will close to play on November 15 so it can be rebuilt as a championship course. In a Truth Social post, he said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's department and architect Tom Fazio drew up the plan, and the new course would open "in approximately 15 months."
Trump said the course "will be open to the Public" while being "able to hold World Class Tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup." He called the current course "old, broken, dilapidated," with "falling, dangerous, and disease infested trees and, importantly, a collapsing and hazardous seawall." He said it was once "famous for no trees" but is now "completely overgrown."
His post did not mention the court case. Last week, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington halted tree removal at the course until at least October 26. The National Park Service had cut about 430 trees over the October 10–11 holiday weekend with little notice to the court. The government linked the work to an older tree management plan. Reyes wrote that officials moved because Trump "demands haste on his redesign." The lawsuit was filed by the DC Preservation League and two local golfers.
On Friday, the Justice Department asked Reyes to step aside. The motion, signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., says she "repeatedly belittled and shouted at" a government lawyer and calls her conduct "nothing short of egregious." The plaintiffs say they are "aware of no basis for disqualification or recusal." The next hearing is set for Monday, October 19.
Photo: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Monday, October 19, 2026
President Donald Trump attacked U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes just after 6 a.m. on Monday, hours after she refused the Justice Department's demand that she step aside from the East Potomac golf course case. Writing on Truth Social, the president called the judge presiding over his planned renovation of the Washington, D.C. public course a "crazed lunatic" and declared that the work will begin "IMMEDIATELY" — even though her order blocking further tree-cutting at the course runs through Oct. 26, and a key hearing in the case is set for today.
"The United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course, and make it into a great, safe, and prestigious golf course. They have an absolute right to do so. It's as simple as that!" Trump wrote. He said the experts at Interior are allowed to carry out what he called a First Class renovation "as of right," insisting: "They do not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY!" He also dismissed the golfer behind the lawsuit, saying the "random golfer bringing the ridiculous lawsuit has ZERO STANDING!" — and complained that courthouse tapes which he says would expose the judge "have been blocked from usage by the judge."
"The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?" — President Donald Trump
The attack came after Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, late on Sunday denied the Justice Department's motion demanding her recusal from the case. In a 13-page opinion, she wrote: "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." She added: "By any objective measure, the Government fails to meet the standard for recusal." And she pushed back on the claim that her courtroom conduct forced the government's hand: "The Government created an emergent situation. The Court responded."
The confrontation sits on top of an announcement Trump made only a day earlier. On Sunday, he said East Potomac Golf Links — the historic public course on National Park Service land in the capital — will close to play on Nov. 15 for a roughly 15-month rebuild led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's department and architect Tom Fazio. The new course, he said, would stay open to the public while being "able to hold World Class Tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup." He called the current course "old, broken, dilapidated," with "falling, dangerous, and disease infested trees and, importantly, a collapsing and hazardous seawall."
The fight in court began over the trees. Over the Oct. 10–11 holiday weekend, the National Park Service cut about 430 trees at the course with little notice to the court, in a case where Reyes had already ruled this year that the government must give notice before substantive construction work moves forward. Furious at learning of the cutting after the fact, Reyes halted any further tree removal until at least Oct. 26. On Friday, the Justice Department answered by asking her to step aside altogether. Its motion, signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., says she "repeatedly belittled and shouted at" a government lawyer, calls her conduct "nothing short of egregious," and accuses her of violating the basic norms that a judge be fair and impartial. It points to moments including her asking a government lawyer whether they were unable to use a phone or drive a car, and her demands that administration witnesses testify on a federal holiday. The plaintiffs — the DC Preservation League and two local golfers — say they are "aware of no basis for disqualification or recusal."
That leaves the two sides on a collision course at today's hearing, a key session on the future of East Potomac Park. The judge's order still forbids any more tree-cutting through Oct. 26, and she remains on the case. The president, for his part, says no approval is needed and the work starts now. He closed his post the same way he has framed the whole project: "The finished product will be World Class, and bring income and great prestige back to D.C."
Monday, October 19, 2026
A federal judge told the government on Monday that she does not believe its central claim in the East Potomac fight. Hearing sworn testimony from Interior Department and National Park Service officials, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes expressed deep skepticism that the mass cutting of trees at East Potomac Park and President Trump's new golf course plan for the site are unconnected. "There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time," Reyes said during a contentious hearing in Washington.
The Park Service has removed hundreds of trees at East Potomac Golf Links. Reyes last week ordered a halt to the redevelopment work until at least October 26, scolding the government for starting large-scale tree removal over a holiday weekend with little notice to the court or the plaintiffs. Attorneys for the D.C. Preservation League and two golfers challenging the project asked her on Monday to extend that pause, arguing the work is inflicting irreversible damage. The Justice Department had also asked Reyes to recuse herself from the case; she declined late Sunday, and the hearing went ahead with the government's witnesses under oath.
"There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time."
Monday's hearing is the latest turn in the fight this site has been following. On Sunday, Trump announced plans to close the golf course for 15 months starting November 15 and redevelop the 106-year-old park and course. In a post on Monday, he said the work would start immediately, called Reyes a "crazed lunatic," and vowed the East Potomac work begins despite her order. Reyes's comments from the bench now set up the next decision: whether the pause she imposed holds past October 26 while the case proceeds — with the president publicly committed to starting work and the judge publicly doubting the government's account of what the work is.
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