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Interior officials say they learned of 2019 tree report in September
Two officials told the court they learned of the report used to justify the felling only weeks before it began. The judge, who refused on Sunday to step aside, said the timing could not be a coincidence.
The two officials Judge Ana Reyes ordered into court over the felling at East Potomac Golf Links gave evidence on Monday. Both said they first learned in September of the 2019 Park Service report the government relies on to justify the felling, the Associated Press reported. The government says the roughly 430 trees cut at the public course in Washington DC came down under a 2019 plan for dead, dying and hazardous trees, and that there is no final plan to redesign the course.
Gregory Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, said he heard about the current tree-management plan on 5 October, as one of a set of beautification projects in the city, The Hill reported. The other witness was Jessica Bowron, the Park Service’s acting director. More than an hour into the hearing, Reyes said: “There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time.”
She had refused late on Sunday to step aside. Her 13-page ruling on the Justice Department’s bias complaint said “it is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion”, Bloomberg Law reported. On Monday morning President Donald Trump called her a “crazed lunatic” on Truth Social and posted that the work would start immediately. A day earlier he had given 15 November as the date the course would close for 15 months.
Reyes’s order against any more felling runs until at least 26 October, and the DC Preservation League and the two golfers who brought the case have asked her to extend it. No ruling on that request had been reported by Monday evening, UK time.
Sources
- WTOP (Associated Press): Judge hears testimony in legal fight over Trump’s golf course renovation plans at East Potomac Park
- The Hill: Judge questions federal government over East Potomac renovation plan amid Donald Trump attacks
- Bloomberg Law: Judge clashes with DOJ official in case over golf course
- Golf Channel: Courtroom drama over East Potomac continues as Trump weighs in on social media
- ABC News: DOJ official clashes with judge in DC golf course case after Trump attacks her
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