President Donald Trump’s Justice Department got caught contradicting itself in front of a federal judge over a historic Washington golf course.
In a court response filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. acknowledged that Trump “has twice directed Interior and the National Park Service to close the park by November 15.” That came nine days after Woodward told U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes there was no plan to close East Potomac Golf Course on that date.
“With regard to the November 15th date…there is no plan to close the course,” Woodward told Reyes at an Oct. 19 hearing, according to a Tuesday order from Reyes, per reporting by Law & Crime.
Reyes, who blocked further work at the course with a preliminary injunction Monday, ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to say whether any closure plan exists and, if so, “how that can be reconciled with Associate AG Woodward’s representation to the Court.” That order followed a Truth Social post in which Trump declared “we are closing the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th.”
Wednesday’s filing never squares the two. Instead, it says Interior, “acting through counsel, is working to develop a plan to implement that direction and will provide this Court with notice” before acting, as the injunction requires.
Woodward’s response pushed back hard against Reyes and turned her own words from an Oct. 12 hearing against her, citing her remarks that “the only reason I have not yet entered a show cause on contempt is that I never put this in a formal order.”
Reyes has ordered Woodward to appear at a status hearing set for Friday or Monday. The lawsuit was brought by the DC Preservation League, a historic preservation group, along with local golfers.
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