Liu’s proposed review would examine ethics, misleading and tree-cutting questions
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, whom Democratic President Joe Biden nominated to the bench, said Saturday that she intends to appoint Jessie Liu as a special master in the East Potomac Golf Course lawsuit. The proposal remains subject to written responses from each side by Friday, when the next court hearing is scheduled. Under the plan, Liu would investigate whether lawyers and administration officials purposefully misled Reyes during litigation over the planned renovation of a historic public golf course in Washington along the Potomac River.
Liu, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, would examine whether officials with the Interior Department and the National Park Service and attorneys with the Department of Justice violated ethics or misled Reyes. The suit was initiated in February by the DC Preservation League and two golfers.
Reyes wants the proposed special-master review to examine two questions. The first asks whether federal officials lied about the extent of renovation plans during months of hearings. The second asks whether they were truthful about various steps they took, including cutting hundreds of trees early last month.
Reyes announced during an Oct. 30 hearing that she was starting a formal investigation of the government’s conduct. Earlier in the case, she had rejected numerous motions from the plaintiffs asking her to step in, saying she trusted the government attorneys.
Reyes ordered the Oct. 30 hearing after multiple posts by Trump on Truth Social indicated there were plans for the golf course and that construction was expected to begin Nov. 15. The posts began Oct. 18. In multiple court hearings afterward, administration officials could not confirm the existence of the plans under Reyes’s questioning, and she eventually asked whom she should trust. The Justice Department filed notice on Oct. 28 that the plans were real.
The Republican administration plans to close the East Potomac Golf Course and park on Nov. 15, with the stated intention of constructing a “World Class, championship-level golf course that is capable of hosting major events.” Trump said the park would be closed for 15 months while the work continued.
An injunction issued by Reyes last month temporarily bars the government from removing or damaging any additional trees on the course. While the lawsuit remains active, the administration also must give 10 days’ notice in writing before making any “irreparable modification” to any “forms or features” of the course.
As the District of Columbia’s chief federal prosecutor, Liu served during President Donald Trump’s first term. In that role, she oversaw some matters referred to her office by then-special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into possible ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Trump later nominated her to be associate attorney general, the third-highest-ranking Department of Justice job. Liu withdrew from consideration after encountering opposition on the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee because of her past membership in a lawyers’ group that has supported abortion rights.
David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said the initiation of a formal investigation by a judge to look into the conduct of trial participants “can be a precursor to holding someone in contempt of court.” Super said the move also reflected “of the difficulty she had in determining who initiated the tree-cutting in defiance of the assurances DOJ provided.” He said Reyes did not have time to keep holding long, complex hearings and wanted a special master to narrow the issues.
Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas.