A federal judge ordered the Interior Department on Monday to temporarily stop cutting down trees at the East Potomac Golf Course and explain why it cut down hundreds over the weekend.
In a heated four-hour hearing, Judge Ana C. Reyes said she was “thoroughly unamused” that officials gave notice at 4:55 p.m. Friday — minutes before courts closed for the holiday weekend — that the National Park Service would begin razing trees the next day.
“I do not know how I could have made it any plainer I did not want what happened to happen,” she said, adding that the incident had “cost the government all of its credibility” in the case.
Reyes extended a temporary restraining order to block any more trees from being cut down before 2 p.m. Tuesday, and said the government must give 72 hours’ notice for any work on East Potomac Golf Links.
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She said she wants a senior official at the Interior Department to testify under oath so she can figure out “whether or not I’ve been lied to.” Reyes vowed to hold contempt hearings if her order is violated by “two seconds.”
“Because we are talking now with potential multiple misrepresentations to the court,” Reyes said, adding that “the only reason” she wasn’t moving to contempt proceedings was that she had not made a formal order previously, a decision she said she is now “regretting.”
The judge had previously told the government that it needed to notify the court before taking irreversible action on renovation and construction.
After alerting the court of its plans on Friday, the government began cutting down trees on Saturday, including healthy and mature oaks and maples, according to an emergency motion filed Sunday by the D.C. Preservation League.
The Trump administration told the group’s lawyers over the weekend that the operation was proceeding faster than anticipated, and that 529 trees had been destroyed Saturday and hundreds more would be cut down imminently, the D.C. Preservation League filing states.
On Monday, lawyers for the government said approximately 430 trees have been cut down so far, and there are plans to cut about 299 more.
“On what universe did anyone in your office think that was acceptable?” Reyes asked the government.
“Your honor, we did our best,” a government attorney replied, before the judge interjected.
“No you did not do your best! You did your absolute worst,” she said.
Reyes spent the majority of the hearing trying to get to the bottom of who gave the order to take down the trees and when it was given.
She summoned Kevin Griess, the superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, who told the court in a declaration filed Friday that the trees do not contribute to the historic landscape and were being removed as part of an older rehabilitation project.
“No healthy trees that are contributing to the historical golf course (such as healthy, historic cherry trees) will be removed as part of this project,” Griess said in that filing.
Greiss testified Monday that the decision was made last Wednesday to move forward with the tree maintenance. Reyes pressed him to say who gave that order, then summoned that official — Frank Lands, a National Parks Service deputy director — to testify, which he did from a parked car.
Lands told the court that Gregory Wischer, the deputy chief of staff for the Interior Department, gave him the order Oct. 5 to go ahead with the tree removal.
Wischer is overseeing the East Potomac Golf Links renovation for the Department of Interior, according to a source familiar with the efforts.
Reyes attempted to call Wischer to testify Monday, but government lawyers said they were unable to contact him on the federal holiday.
“Someone is going to be under oath explaining that to me,” she said, referring to the urgency of the tree cutting, “because this is totally, totally beyond the pale.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller publicly objected to Reyes’ order.
“I missed the part of the Constitutional Convention that put federal judges in charge of golf course maintenance,” Miller posted on X. “The Left is endlessly enraged that, after allowing DC to decay for decades, the Trump Administration is making it safe, clean and beautiful.”
This article has been updated with additional comments from the hearing.
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