Judge orders Trump administration to answer for tree removals at Washington golf course

Washington DC: A federal judge on Monday excoriated the Trump administration for ripping up hundreds of mature trees at a Washington golf course over the holiday weekend after she had directed officials to disclose major changes before work was started.

In an explosive, four-hour emergency hearing, Judge Ana Reyes of the US District Court in Washington ordered a one-day halt to any more tree removal at East Potomac Golf Links, and said she would continue proceedings on Tuesday.

But first she directed Justice Department lawyers to track down a succession of progressively more senior officials involved in the decision, and ordered them to testify on the spot, as she demanded answers about who had authorised the trees to be cleared and whether the decision was linked to the White House.

President Donald Trump has eyed the course for redevelopment into a course similar to those on his personal properties.

“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes said, appearing remotely from Istanbul, where she had been travelling.

“What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility with me in this case,” she said, before listing all the times she had directed the government to alert her to major alterations.

Monday’s hearing was technically to address the tree removal, but Reyes made clear that her larger concern was the possibility that the Trump administration had flouted her instructions.

Two Washington residents and a preservationist organisation had sued in February over the president’s stated goal to redevelop the affordable municipal course into a championship-level one.

At a hearing in July, Reyes, an appointee of President Joe Biden, ordered the Trump administration to notify the court before making sudden alterations to the course. She said she was worried about how quickly plans were taking shape, and she did not want to find out work had begun too late to “stop the trains”.

On Friday evening, the Justice Department filed documents showing the administration intended to remove 529 trees as part of a larger restoration. By Saturday morning, machinery could be seen cutting down trees. The government acknowledged Monday that more than 400 were removed in one fell swoop.

In a filing Sunday night, lawyers representing the DC Preservation League asked Reyes to block further action, noting that the government had indicated that there were still “hundreds more” trees to be cut, prompting her to call for the emergency hearing.