A federal judge in Washington has ordered a formal ethics inquiry into the government's own lawyers in the East Potomac Golf Links case. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes announced at a hearing on Friday that she will investigate whether Justice Department and Interior Department lawyers misrepresented the Trump administration's intention to press ahead with renovating the historic public golf course after she had temporarily blocked the project. She said she was concerned the attorneys had provided "materially misleading information" to the court and omitted other relevant information about the administration's plans.
Reyes said the inquiry will be carried out with a special master — an independent investigator appointed by the court — and she gave the Justice Department five days to object to her decision to appoint one. She also ordered the administration to preserve all documents and communications about the golf course planning process. She was plain about what the order does not mean: opening the inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing, and she has reached no conclusion on whether any lawyer broke the ethics rules. "For months, the court trusted but did not verify," Reyes said. "No longer."
The inquiry turns on two statements made one day apart. On October 18, President Trump announced that the Department of the Interior "has developed a plan" to build a new golf course on the East Potomac site, and that the course "will be closed" on November 15 for a renovation of about 15 months. On October 19, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward — the Justice Department's third-ranking official — told Reyes in court: "there is no plan to close the course." Nine days later, on Wednesday, the Justice Department confirmed to the court that the National Park Service will close the park and the golf course on November 15 after all.
Reyes opened Friday's hearing by reading out the D.C. Bar's conduct rules on candor to the court, which prohibit lawyers from knowingly making false statements, and then questioned Woodward for more than two hours. "The third-highest ranking official in the Department of Justice is telling a federal court that he cannot say, when the president has said 'the course will close on November 15,' what he meant was, 'the course will close on November 15?'" she asked him. At another point she told him: "Let's not play games anymore, Mr. Woodward."
The inquiry will examine more than the closure statements. Reyes will look at whether the government acted in bad faith over the removal of trees from the course, whether government lawyers directed the acting director of the National Park Service, Jessica Bowron, to leave information out of a declaration about the plans for the course, and how a redesign of the course — a rendering by golf architect Tom Fazio — was prepared for the National Capital Planning Commission over a period of weeks without the court being told. She has also asked for a written account by next week naming the individuals who developed the administration's plans and when the decisions were made.
The case itself began in February, when the DC Preservation League and two Washington-area golfers sued to stop the administration's takeover of the 36-hole public course, which has operated since the 1920s, arguing it would violate environmental laws and destroy a piece of American history. In May, Reyes ordered the government to give advance notice of any substantive construction work. In October, the administration removed hundreds of trees without notice, and she blocked further tree removal — an order she extended this week while the lawsuit proceeds. Through it all, the Justice Department's position has been that no final plan exists to replace the course, and it had asked the judge to disregard the president's own statements about the renovation.
What happens next is process, not verdict. The special master has not been chosen, the Justice Department has five days to object, and no lawyer has been found to have done anything wrong. But for the ordinary golfers who play one of the capital's few public courses — and for anyone who depends on the government telling a court the plain truth — Friday's order means the administration's words about East Potomac will now be checked against its documents.
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