By Steve Gorman and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – A judge said on Saturday she would appoint a former top federal prosecutor to investigate whether Trump administration lawyers committed ethical violations in their defense of President Donald Trump’s plans to close and renovate a historic public golf course in Washington.
US District Judge Ana Reyes named Jessie Liu, former US attorney for the District of Columbia, as a “special master” to investigate the conduct of the departments of Justice and Interior during litigation over the fate of the East Potomac Golf Links course.
Reyes named Liu one week after an October 30 hearing in which the judge ordered an ethics probe and expressed concerns that government attorneys misrepresented the Trump administration’s intention to continue with the renovation of the East Potomac course despite her temporary order blocking the project.
At that time, Trump had said renovation work would begin immediately, despite the judge’s order and contrary to assertions that Reyes said government officials had made asking her to disregard the president’s statements.
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president,” Reyes said at an earlier hearing. “This started as a case about golf … But it has become much more.”
Liu was the US attorney for DC during Trump’s first term, when she oversaw the criminal case against Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone. After a few years in private practice, Liu and two other former prosecutors launched their own law firm in April.
The Interior Department issued a statement calling Reyes a “far Left activist judge” who would “stop at nothing to prevent President Donald Trump’s efforts to beautify our nation’s capital.”
Trump’s plan to transform the East Potomac links into a “world class” golf course is part of a broader effort to leave his architectural stamp on Washington.
The lawsuit filed by a non-profit group and two Washington residents asserts that the planned reconstruction of East Potomac Park, including the golf course, violates environmental laws and a congressional preservation act.
(Writing and reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Sonali Paul)
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