Public health advocates sued the Trump administration Wednesday to compel officials to disclose whether their rapid demolition of the White House’s East Wing annex exposed workers or the public to hazardous building materials.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which filed Freedom of Information Act requests in November but says it has yet to receive any relevant documents, is demanding that the White House explain whether it undertook asbestos inspections, air monitoring, waste disposal safeguards and other legally required steps as part of its demolition project.
Linda Reinstein, the organization’s leader, said she and colleagues decided to seek answers after watching clouds of dust billow from the construction site as demolition crews reduced the decades-old White House annex to rubble, tearing the structure down in three days as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to build an expansive White House ballroom.
“We’re using the law to get the government to respond with the public health information that all Americans deserve to know,” Reinstein said in an interview. Her organization’s lawsuit names as defendants the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Executive Office of the President, accusing them of failing to respond to FOIA requests about efforts to mitigate risks associated with asbestos, which was widely used in building projects at the time of the East Wing’s 1902 construction and 1942 renovation.
Concerns about asbestos risks have loomed since the Trump administration’s rapid demolition of the East Wing in October, which caught local leaders off guard and ignited nationwide alarm that the historic site would be torn down with no apparent oversight. The site also quickly became a tourist attraction, with crowds seeking to catch a glimpse of the work even as potentially hazardous dust and debris swirled.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about asbestos abatement efforts at the East Wing site and whether it would release documents about that work. Officials have previously said that “extensive” abatement efforts were undertaken in September, before the East Wing’s demolition, but they shared no further details. Contractors involved in the project have referred questions to the White House.
Federal public records requests typically take months and even years to fulfill, but most of the agencies who received the requests in this case agencies failed to make required FOIA determinations within statutory deadlines.
In addition, no notification of asbestos abatement work was filed with the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment for the project, unlike prior White House projects across both Republican and Democratic administrations, according to records obtained through a FOIA request and shared with The Post.
The absence of those local records does not necessarily mean asbestos abatement did not occur. Maryland officials told The Washington Post that they have seen documentation of asbestos abatement at the East Wing. Officials reviewed the project because some demolition-related materials were transported to a concrete crushing, screening and recycling facility in Hyattsville, Maryland.
“Our review, which included sampling and analysis of demolition material at the Maryland facility, along with a review of documentation of asbestos abatement performed at the East Wing before demolition, found no indication of any asbestos waste in Maryland,” David Abrams, communications director for Maryland’s environmental department, wrote in an email. Abrams said his colleagues did not visit the East Wing site as part of their review, and that they could not share the documents with reporters because the department did have not the documents in its possession.
When asked if they had conducted tests of any demolition material, the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment did not respond. Dirt excavated from the White House grounds was trucked south to the East Potomac Golf Course that hugs the Potomac River.
The EPA referred questions about abatement efforts to the White House.
“Any hazardous material abatement was done in September,” a White House official previously said in a statement to The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the construction. “A very extensive abatement and remediation assessment was followed, complying with all applicable federal standards.”
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization said that it submitted FOIA requests to nine federal entities but only the General Services Administration provided an adequate response, stating it had no responsive records. The asbestos advocacy organization also obtained documents through FOIA that showed a pair of asbestos abatement projects at the White House in early 2025 — both unrelated to the East Wing demolition.
“We want to know if they did it. Why can’t they just tell us — what’s the big secret here?” said Reinstein, who co-founded the organization in 2004, after her husband was diagnosed with cancer following asbestos exposure. He died in 2006.
The East Wing’s demolition and the plans to build what Trump says is a $400 million ballroom, funded by private donations, have drawn scrutiny in part because Trump has repeatedly changed his estimates of the project’s size and cost and because officials have declined to share other key details. The White House on Thursday is slated to present its ballroom plans at a federal review panel, the first public hearing on the project.
Administration lawyers have defended the project as falling within the broad powers of the presidency, arguing that the project is exempted from certain federal reviews as a result. Courts have held that some parts of the Executive Office of the President are exempt from FOIA, particularly if the activity in question is seen as an extension of the president and not operating independently.
Historic preservationists, watchdog groups and lawmakers have countered by demanding more transparency, with Democrats asking what if anything was promised to businesses and individuals in return for helping privately fund the project. Several Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey (Massachusetts), have also pressed the administration and its contractors on whether they undertook efforts to reduce risks of asbestos and other hazards. The lawmakers and their staffs have said they have received no answers.
“This Administration is deceptive to the point of being dangerous to the American people,” Markey said in a statement, drawing a connection between the East Wing demolition, the recent strike on Venezuela and other actions that did not receive congressional approval or undergo public review. “Transparency is anathema to Donald Trump.”
The haste and obscurity surrounding the demolition mark a departure from previous White House renovation efforts, including on the subject of asbestos.
D.C.’s asbestos abatement process — which in the past has been followed by the White House — requires licensed contractors to notify the Department of Energy and Environment online at least 10 working days before work begins to receive necessary permits, except in “bona fide emergencies,” which require a waiver request, according to the department’s website. Contractors must include details such as the amount of asbestos to be abated and the project’s estimated timeline.
The Post reviewed decades’ worth of asbestos abatement paperwork that the federal government has filed with the city, detailing dozens of examples of abatement projects occurring at the White House’s sprawling complex since 1989. At least three permits mention abatement work specifically at the East Wing, with a few days of renovations occurring in 1997, a months-long project beginning in late 2017 and more work taking place in 2021. There was no trace of such paperwork filed with the department in the run-up to the East Wing demolition, according to records obtained through a FOIA request. The entity that made the request shared the documents with The Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
A department spokesperson declined to comment, directing questions to the White House and the EPA. “The federal government is responsible for all aspects of the White House demolition,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Bob Sussman, a lawyer who served as deputy EPA administrator during the Clinton administration and is representing the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization in its lawsuit, said agencies involved in the project are obligated to disclose what they know rather than deferring to the White House.
“FOIA was enacted by Congress so citizens are not kept in the dark about what their government is doing,” Sussman said in a statement.
Nate Jones contributed to this report.
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