In a fiery hearing on Monday, a federal judge slammed the Trump administration for defying her order to give the court notice before taking down more than 10 trees on the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, D.C.

“I am just beyond disappointed in the government,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said. “I have done everything humanly possible to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case. I have done it for months.”

Reyes is blocking the government from removing even a single tree until at least Tuesday afternoon, while she considers a longer-term ruling.

“I have no faith that the government is not going to cut them down unless there’s an order in place not to do so,” Reyes said when she announced her ruling. “Now we’re all going to have a massive fire drill because the government can’t be trusted.”

Reyes had previously requested the Trump administration to notify the court before beginning any major work or construction — including the removal of more than 10 trees — while the lawsuit remains pending.

The National Park Service announced its plans for the tree removal late Friday night in a court filing. In the filing, Kevin Griess, superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks announced that NPS planned to remove up to 529 trees from a wooded area called “Trash Island” beginning the morning of Oct. 10 as part of a tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.

“The planned tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project is not a renovation or redesign of the Golf Course, is not a part of any potential project to redesign or renovate the Golf Course, and would be carried out irrespective of any future renovation or redesign,” Griess wrote.

Late Sunday night, the coalition that brought the lawsuit filed an emergency motion, noting that several hundred trees had been removed over the weekend.

The tree removal is the latest flashpoint in an ongoing legal battle over the future of East Potomac Golf Course, which has become the target for Trump’s renovations around the capital. The president has taken a swing to convert the existing 36-hole golf course into one that could host major professional tournaments.

“Defendants took down 529 trees in one day. They have acknowledged they intend to take hundreds more. Left unchecked, Defendants are moving rapidly toward precisely the fait accompli this Court has reportedly admonished against,” the motion read.

The government ultimately only removed 430 trees over the weekend with heavy rain interfering with the full scope of the work.

The coalition suing the Trump administration consists of a historic preservation group and local golfers who use the course.

Reyes called the emergency hearing on a federal holiday, so parties appeared on Zoom — but the judge made her feelings about the government’s actions immediately clear.

“There is no excuse for this and you know why I’m furious right now,” she told lawyers for the administration.

“I was hearing from everyone on plaintiff’s side that this was going to happen and I said ‘no’ repeatedly, ‘I trust the government.’ I trusted you all repeatedly to not do what you have done,” she said.

“I’m just at a total loss to understand what has happened here,” she continued.

When Marissa Piropato, a lawyer representing the government, told Reyes that they had “done their best” to notify the court about the tree cutting, she responded, “No you did not. You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.”

Griess testified for nearly two hours on behalf of the government’s plans for the tree removal, saying his staff designed the tree management plan on Oct. 5, but he didn’t begin working with the government on a declaration informing the court of the plan until the morning of Oct. 9. The government did not inform the court of its plans until 4:55 on the Friday before a holiday weekend and the night before the planned removal.

Griess testified that he decided which trees should be removed, saying part of the removal was “about restoration of the park to its original historic state of the links golf course.”

Griess also said he had not been briefed on Trump’s specific plans for the golf course, saying he only knew what was announced on social media.

“I’m not aware of the president’s plan for the golf course,” he told Reyes.

Reyes asked Deputy Director for Operations at NPS Frank Lands whether he was aware of any reason that the tree cutting had to be done urgently, “other than this was the express preference” of the government.

“I’m not aware of any reason,” Lands told the judge. 

Plans to remove trees from the public course — opened in 1920 to give diverse communities a place to golf — have been in place since 2019. But plaintiffs contend that the planned tree removals have now been reimagined as part of a Trump-branded reconstruction that will force the closure of the course and make it unattainable for the communities it once served.

Lawyers for the administration told Reyes on Monday that the trees were ordered taken down over the weekend because it just received the resources to do so, an argument the judge didn’t seem to buy, asking, “This has been a plan since 2019. Why did it have to happen Saturday?”

Reyes repeatedly expressed frustration that the government began chopping hundreds of trees without giving her or the plaintiffs appropriate notice. Throughout this litigation, Reyes has reiterated that she would prefer to trust the government and avoid issuing official orders.

“Here’s the thing, counsel, there are American citizens who are deeply concerned with the actions of the government. And I have repeatedly on the record said, ‘don’t be concerned, I trust the government.’ I do not understand why this went forward on Saturday. Why did this go forward on Saturday?” Reyes said.

Piropato responded that she had “nothing to add,” opting to rest on the hours of testimony from Griess and Lands.

In a nearly four hour hearing that sometimes meandered into the course’s history, acreage and the origin of Japanese cherry trees located there, Reyes repeatedly ordered representatives from NPS to preserve all communications related to the tree management plan at the golf course.

Monday’s ruling was an extension of temporary relief she had provided earlier in the morning, blocking the NPS from removing the trees for at least one day.

“The removal of hundreds of trees from East Potomac Golf Course is permanent,” she wrote in the emergency order ahead of the hearing, “while the Government will not be prejudiced by a short delay given that weather might continue to prevent it from proceeding in any event.”

Reyes warned the government with contempt if they disobeyed that order.

“I promise you if that order is violated by two seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings,” she said.

The post ‘You did your absolute worst’: Judge blasts government after she says it defied her on D.C. golf course case appeared first on MS NOW.

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