A federal judge refused a request from the Justice Department to step aside from a key hearing on Monday concerning the future of a municipal golf course and large East Potomac Park on which it sits in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration alleged that U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is “violating the basic norms” to be impartial in the case after she yelled at a government attorney last week about hundreds of trees that were cut down on the course without additional notice, according to The Hill newspaper.
“It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion. But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record,” Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote in an opinion denying the DOJ’s request late Sunday.
You can read her 13-page opinion here on social media.
President Donald Trump wants to renovate the park into a championship-style golf course. Reyes is overseeing a lawsuit from a preservationist group and individual golfers who argue the project is unlawful.
Reyes will oversee a hearing Monday morning on the matter, for which she has called the Park Service’s acting chief, Jessica Bowron, and the Justice Department’s No. 3 official, Stanley Woodward, to appear.
Early Monday morning, Trump on social media called the course “unsafe” and referred to Reyes as a “crazed lunatic.”
