A Trump administration official said Friday that renovation plans for East Potomac Golf Links had been in the works for weeks, prompting a federal judge to open an official investigation into attorney misconduct.
Judge Ana Reyes often aired frustration and exasperation at the court hearing, where Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told her an official at the Interior Department had “put pen to paper” on a plan to redevelop the golf course in recent weeks.
Woodward, the No. 3 official at DOJ, had told the court in an Oct. 19 hearing that there were no plans to close the course for redevelopment by Nov. 15, a day after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the course would close for restoration by then.
Reyes called for the hearing after yet another Trump post on Monday that said “we are closing the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th.”
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The president’s use of the words “as scheduled” indicated there were concrete plans for the site — despite the government’s refusal to detail plans in court earlier in the month.
Reyes expressed disbelief that no one had mentioned the active planning at that previous hearing, and she called for a 15-minute break after learning the news.
“Are you telling the court there’s been pen to paper for plans to redevelop the East Potomac golf course in the last two weeks, and no one, no one mentioned that on Oct. 19 in a seven-hour meeting?” Reyes asked.
Reyes had called the hearing and ordered Woodward to appear, demanding to know more about Trump’s announcement on social media and whether the government had run afoul of her order requiring official notice before moving forward with the project.
By the end, Reyes said she would launch an investigation into whether Trump administration officials committed misconduct in her courtroom, including Woodward. Reyes said she will either appoint a “special master” or do the investigation herself.
That would likely include questioning DOJ and Interior Department lawyers, a mini-trial with an evidentiary hearing and possible sanctions against government officials. The judge said she’s looking into whether government lawyers lied to the court or failed to correct past statements about what the Trump administration is planning to do with the public golf course on the Potomac River.
That includes whether the government held back notice about cutting down trees “to intentionally evade judicial review” and hide it from her, whether lawyers instructed officials to leave out details in court filings, and whether lawyers were being truthful when they said there were no plans to redesign the golf course.
The government has five business days to object to the appointment of a special master. Reyes told the court the formal inquiry does not mean the court has found evidence of unethical misconduct.
“That’s why we’re conducting an investigation,” she said.
The skirmish on Friday followed an atypical series of events, in which the president of the United States took particular interest in the redevelopment of a municipal golf course, the No. 3 at the DOJ became personally involved by defending it — and the government tried to get the judge to remove herself from the case.
Earlier in the hearing, when Reyes asked for clarity on what the president meant when he said the course would close on Nov. 15, Woodward stonewalled — prompting rebukes and gasps of incredulity from the judge and repeated reminders of his duties as a lawyer.
“I don’t know what the president meant, and if I did, I couldn’t talk about that,” he replied.
When she pressed further, Woodward sought to shut down the inquiry by pointing to a presidential power to keep certain information private: “That seems to fall squarely within executive privilege.”
“He posted it publicly!” Reyes said.
Reyes at one point reminded Woodward of his “duty to make reasonable inquiry” before making representations in court and his responsibility to “ensure the truth to the court,” going so far as to read him the D.C. bar rules.
When Woodward indicated that tree removal — which she has already paused — was part of a plan, she read back his statements to ask whether the government had been hiding information from her.
And when she probed the government’s claims that renovation is necessary to build a seawall for the supposed safety of golfers, Reyes chuckled and asked Woodward if he’d ever even been there.
“You think there’s a danger of people falling into the Potomac? Just flinging themselves off?” she said.
“What’s the safety issue with the seawall?” Reyes asked.
“The pictures speak for themselves,” Woodward replied.
“No, they don’t. What’s the safety issue?” she asked again.
Woodward repeated his line about the pictures several more times — then attempted to end the back-and-forth. “I don’t know why this is an effective line of inquiry,” he said.
“I get to decide what the effective line of inquiry is,” the judge shot back.
When Woodward seemed annoyed at the way the inquiry was going, Reyes made clear she’d run out of patience as well.
“I imagine that the third-highest ranking DOJ official has more important things to do than talk about a golf course,” she said, cautioning him to avoid grumbling about a Friday hearing. “Do that over drinks with your friends.”
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