Washington — A federal judge sharply criticized the Justice Department on Monday after hundreds of trees were removed Saturday from East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., with little advance notice. The judge told government attorneys that the department had “lost credibility.”
During a nearly four-hour virtual hearing, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, to testify under oath about the decision to cut down 430 trees at the golf course, which President Trump seeks to overhaul. She also required Frank Lands, the National Park Service’s deputy director of operations, to join the hearing and answer questions.
“I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than, Occam’s Razor time, that the government intended to do precisely what it has done,” Reyes told Marissa Piropato, a Justice Department attorney. The judge suggested that officials delayed notifying the plaintiffs and the court so they could proceed with a plan to remove hundreds of trees.
Reyes opened the hearing by telling Piropato that she was “furious” and “thoroughly unamused right now.”
“You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” Reyes said, condemning the Justice Department’s handling of notice to the court and the plaintiffs.
The judge extended a temporary order barring the National Park Service from removing additional trees, including those cut for routine maintenance, until 2 p.m. Tuesday while she weighs further action. She also said she would order the Justice Department to give her three days’ notice before taking any future action at the golf course.
Reyes had repeatedly instructed the Justice Department to notify the court if the Interior Department or National Park Service intended to conduct construction or similar work at East Potomac. Such notice would have given her time to review the planned activity and issue an order if necessary.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, government attorneys informed the court that the National Park Service would begin clearing trees Saturday under a “tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.” In a declaration timestamped 4:37 p.m. Friday, Griess said 169 trees would be removed initially, followed by another 90. He estimated that 529 trees would ultimately be cut as part of the project.
On Sunday, however, attorneys for the D.C. Preservation League said crews had removed all 529 trees on Saturday alone, including “healthy, mature oaks and maples.” The preservation group filed suit with two golfers challenging Mr. Trump’s proposal to transform East Potomac.
The group sought an emergency order preventing the National Park Service from cutting down more trees after Justice Department lawyers said the operation was moving “faster than anticipated,” according to court filings. The Trump administration also told the D.C. Preservation League that “hundreds of additional trees would be felled imminently,” although rain on Sunday affected that plan.
The Justice Department said approximately 99 more trees had been identified for removal. Griess testified that the 430 trees already cut down had not been designated as hazardous or linked to safety concerns.
Reyes repeatedly questioned Piropato about when she learned of the National Park Service’s plans and why the court and plaintiffs were not notified until Friday.
“Ignorance is not an excuse here,” Reyes said.
She added that she was “beyond disappointed” by the government’s conduct.
“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,’” Reyes said. “I do not understand why this went forward on Saturday. Why did this go forward on Saturday?”
The judge also pressed Griess and Lands for details about who authorized the weekend operation. Lands testified from a vehicle in a parking lot. Reyes additionally sought testimony from Gregory Wischer, the Interior Department’s deputy chief of staff, but Piropato said she was unable to reach him.
Griess, who oversees work at East Potomac Golf Links, said he submitted a tree-management plan that included the removals to the National Park Service’s leader on Oct. 5 and received approval the following day. Both Griess and Lands testified, however, that there was no urgent need to remove the trees Saturday.
Griess said the plan was intended to follow recommendations in a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report. That report calls for restoring the course’s “links style and historic vegetation (rough grasslands, thin trees between fairways, and sentinel deciduous trees)” at East Potomac.
Golf course architect Walter J. Travis designed East Potomac, which opened to the public in the 1920s as a links-style course. Griess said links courses are generally built along coastlines and feature fewer trees and less undergrowth.
More than a century after East Potomac opened, various plantings had been added to the property, and “there appeared to be no coherent adherence to the original design,” Griess testified. He said the National Park Service now intends to restore the course in keeping with its identity as a links-style golf course.
Griess said he moved forward with putting together the tree-removal plan after funding and National Park Service employees working on events related to America’s 250th birthday were freed up following the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in August.
But lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League pushed back on the Trump administration’s argument that it cut down the trees to implement the seven-year-old Cultural Landscape Report and noted that Mr. Trump’s plan to renovate the East Potomac golf course “will require massive tree-clearing.”
They argued that the administration’s implementation of the plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed action. The plaintiffs accused the Trump administration of skirting its obligations under the law by conducting smaller, segmented projects, like the tree-razing.
“What Defendants are doing now goes beyond routine maintenance, or maintenance of any kind. Defendants have begun an operation that is unprecedented in East Potomac Park’s 130-year history: felling more than 500 trees in a single day, with plans to cut down hundreds more as soon as the weather permits,” lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League wrote in their request for emergency relief.