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, even though she had directed officials to disclose any major changes before work was started.
In an explosive, four-hour emergency hearing, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal 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 authorized the trees to be cleared and whether the decision was linked to the White House. President Trump has eyed the municipal course in southeastern Washington for redevelopment into a luxury championship course similar to those on his personal properties.
“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Judge Reyes said, appearing remotely from Istanbul, where she had been traveling. She raised her voice at several points to near shouting level.
“What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility with me in this case,” she said, before listing all of the times she had directed the government to alert her to major alterations.
The Monday morning hearing was technically to address the tree removal, but Judge Reyes made clear that her larger concern was the possibility that the Trump administration had flouted her instructions. Since Mr. Trump returned to office last year, judges have repeatedly been forced to interrogate whether the government has complied with orders across a variety of cases.
Two Washington residents and a preservationist organization had sued in February over the president’s stated goal to redevelop the affordable municipal course into a championship-level one. In June, Mr. Trump was photographed touring the grounds and studying blueprints with Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, and Tom Fazio, a well-known architect who has designed other courses owned by the Trump Organization.
At a hearing in July, Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee, ordered the Trump administration to notify the court before making sudden alterations to the course. She said that she was worried about how quickly plans were taking shape, and that 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 on Monday that more than 400 were removed in one fell swoop over the weekend.
In a filing on Sunday night, lawyers representing the D.C. Preservation League asked Judge 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.
She fumed at the hearing that she had given the Trump administration “the benefit of the doubt” at every turn to disclose its plans for the course, only to learn while traveling that the government had moved ahead.
When Marissa Piropato, a Justice Department lawyer, could not explain why the government had waited until Friday night to alert the court to action planned for the following day, Judge Reyes reacted furiously.
“Ignorance is not an excuse here,” she said.
She told Ms. Piropato at another point that “what I find most frustrating about this, counsel, is that this is all double speak.”
Judge Reyes said she needed to figure out the chain of events that led to the tree removal, to figure out “whether or not I’ve been lied to.”
One official, Kevin Griess, a National Park Service official overseeing public lands in Washington, testified that plans for the tree removal were finalized on Oct. 5, and that he received the go-ahead to proceed over the weekend from Frank Lands, a deputy director at the National Park Service.
At that point, Judge Reyes ordered that Mr. Lands be located to testify. Appearing remotely from his car in a parking lot, Mr. Lands explained that he formalized plans to renovate the course with Gregory Wischer, a Trump appointee at the Interior Department. Mr. Lands said that he and Mr. Wischer had also discussed Mr. Trump’s ideas to remake the site into a premier competition course.
Judge Reyes then ordered Mr. Wischer, a deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, to appear, but Ms. Piropato said the department was unable to reach him. At that point, Judge Reyes concluded the hearing for the day, ordering that Mr. Wischer be prepared to testify as early as Tuesday morning.
“We’re going to get him in here tomorrow,” she said.
In the meantime, Judge Reyes blocked the government from removing more trees until 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, and she said she would consider whether to block to the government from doing any work at the course for two weeks. She added that she would “try and take this step by step.”
She ordered Mr. Griess, Mr. Lands and their staff members to preserve records about the decision, and warned of repercussions if the government did more work at the course on Monday, given her orders to stop.
“I promise you, if that order is violated by two seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings,” she said.
Judge Reyes said she felt betrayed by the Justice Department after she had repeatedly declined to formally block the Trump administration from conducting work at the site, despite repeated requests from the group that had sued.
“I wanted you all to be better than you have been,” she told Ms. Piropato.
