Follow-Up: Interior Officials Tell Court East Potomac Golf Plan Is Not Final as Judge Declines to Recuse Herself
WASHINGTON — U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes held a hearing on October 19 in the lawsuit over the renovation of the East Potomac Golf Links, where officials from the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service (NPS) testified that plans for the course have not been finalized. The same day, President Donald Trump called the judge a "crazed lunatic" on social media and said work would begin "IMMEDIATELY!"
According to USA Today, the witnesses included Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Department of the Interior, and Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, both of whom said the renovation plan is not final despite the president's posts announcing it. Government lawyers wrote in an October 16 filing that "there is no final agency action" and that the president's mention of a possible project in a handful of posts "demonstrates at most that the President has given preliminary thought to it." Bowron had earlier submitted a declaration in the case saying the renovations "remain in a conceptual stage."
On recusal, government lawyers had asked Reyes to disqualify herself after she described herself as "furious" over the tree removal, writing that no reasonable observer could consider her sufficiently impartial. Reyes declined, writing on October 18 that she had complimented the government's filings repeatedly and that "particularly in hard-fought litigation dealing with controversial issues, district judges must sometimes take strong actions and use strong words." GSM reported the Justice Department's recusal motion on October 17.
Trump criticized Reyes on social media on October 19 for blocking the project, saying work would begin "IMMEDIATELY" and that the finished product would be "World Class." He told reporters at the White House that the Interior Department has the right to renovate the course "absolutely," calling the current course "old, its tired, it's beaten up, it's useless, it doesn't do much business," and adding, "We're going to basically build a better golf course. You can call it a renovation. It should be very simple." Under Trump's October 18 announcement, the course is scheduled to close on November 15 for about 15 months of work, with a plan developed with golf architect Tom Fazio to create a championship-level course.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in February by plaintiffs including the DC Preservation League seeking to block the renovation. On October 10, federal officials removed more than 430 trees while the litigation was pending, after which Reyes temporarily halted work on the course. See GSM's reports of October 13, 17 and 18 for earlier developments. (GSM, based on USA Today reporting)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：East Potomac高尔夫球场会所（1921年建成的南侧球场会馆，现为球场商店与餐厅）资料图。照片：AgnosticPreachersKid，CC BY-SA 3.0，经维基共享资源。Photo: The clubhouse of East Potomac Golf Links (file photo). By AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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