Washington — A federal judge sharply criticized the Justice Department on Monday after 430 trees were removed from East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., over the weekend with minimal advance notice. She told government attorneys that their handling of the matter had caused them to “lose 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 the trees at the golf course, which President Trump has proposed renovating. Reyes also required Frank Lands, the National Park Service’s deputy director of operations, to join the hearing and respond to 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 Justice Department attorney Marissa Piropato. The judge suggested that officials withheld information from the plaintiffs and the court long enough to prepare a plan to remove hundreds of trees.
At the outset of the hearing, Reyes told Piropato that she was “furious” and “thoroughly unamused right now.”
“You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” the judge said, faulting the Justice Department for failing to properly alert the court and opposing parties before the tree-cutting operation began.
Reyes extended a temporary order barring the National Park Service from removing additional trees—including those cut for ordinary maintenance—until 2 p.m. Tuesday, while she weighs further action. She said she also plans to order the Justice Department to give her at least three days’ notice before taking any future action at East Potomac Golf Links.
The judge had previously instructed the Justice Department to notify the court if the Interior Department or National Park Service intended to begin construction or comparable work at the golf course. Such notice would have given her time to review the plans and issue an order if necessary.
In a filing submitted shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, government attorneys said the National Park Service would begin removing trees Saturday under a “tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.” In a declaration filed at 4:37 p.m. Friday, Griess said crews would initially remove 169 trees, followed by another 90. He estimated that the full project would ultimately involve cutting down 529 trees.
By Sunday, attorneys representing the D.C. Preservation League—which sued alongside two golfers to challenge Mr. Trump’s plans for East Potomac—said crews had removed all 529 trees on Saturday. The trees included “healthy, mature oaks and maples,” according to the group.
The preservation group sought an emergency order preventing the National Park Service from continuing the work after Justice Department lawyers said the operation was moving “faster than anticipated,” according to court papers. The Trump administration also told the league that “hundreds of additional trees would be felled imminently,” although rain on Sunday disrupted those plans.
The Justice Department said approximately 99 more trees had been identified for removal. Griess testified that none of the 430 trees already cut had been classified as hazardous or considered a safety risk.
Reyes repeatedly questioned Piropato about when she learned of the planned tree removal and why the court and plaintiffs were not informed until Friday.
“Ignorance is not an excuse here,” the judge said.
Reyes added that she was “beyond disappointed” by the government’s conduct.
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“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 sought clarity from Griess and Lands about who authorized the weekend operation. Lands participated from a vehicle in a parking lot. Reyes asked that Gregory Wischer, the Interior Department’s deputy chief of staff, appear to answer questions, but Piropato said she had been unable to reach him.
Griess, who oversees operations at East Potomac Golf Links, said he submitted a tree-management proposal to the National Park Service’s director on Oct. 5 and received approval the next day. However, both Griess and Lands testified that there was no pressing need to remove the trees on 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,” including rough grasslands, sparse plantings between fairways and prominent deciduous trees.
East Potomac was designed by golf architect Walter J. Travis and opened to the public in the 1920s as a links-style course. Griess explained that links courses are traditionally built in coastal settings and typically feature fewer trees and lower-growing vegetation.
Over the century since East Potomac opened, however, a variety of plantings were added, 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 original 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.
