A contentious hearing is underway in Washington, D.C., where lawyers for the Trump administration are facing off with a federal judge pushing for answers over whether she was deliberately misled by the government over why it removed hundreds of trees from a local public golf course.
D.C. District Judge Ana Reyes has ordered testimony from Interior Department official Gregory Wischer and acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron over why the government moved abruptly on Columbus Day weekend to remove more than 500 trees from East Potomac golf course without giving her proper advance notice.
Last week, Reyes erupted at attorneys for the government after the trees were removed despite her demanding the administration alert her in advance if it planned any significant alterations to the course given ongoing litigation.
The golf course has been the subject of litigation brought by the D.C. Preservation League in response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to turn it into a course that could host professional tournaments.
A golfer walks past the stump of a large tree at the East Potomac Golf Links, Oct. 12, 2026, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo
Reyes has questioned the motive for the tree removal, saying during Monday’s hearing that there appeared to be “a strong showing of bad faith” on the government’s part in continuing to point to a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report calling for the removal of dead, dying and hazardous trees around the golf course as Trump has posted on social media about moving ahead with renovations to the golf course.
Trump announced in a Sunday social media post that full-scale renovations of East Potomac would begin on Nov. 15 though it’s unclear whether the start date will hold given that Reyes is currently blocking the administration from proceeding with any major construction on the course.
The hearing immediately got off to a contentious start as Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the Justice Department’s No. 3-ranked official, and Judge Reyes clashed over why none of the Justice Department’s lawyers on the East Potomac case have joined him in signing his recent legal briefs.
Woodward said he would instruct each attorney not to answer Reyes’ question, after which Reyes ordered Woodward to submit a brief by 3 p.m. Monday explaining the legal rationale behind that instruction.
The government’s justification for the recent tree removal has focused on the 2019 report on the removal of the trees, claiming that the tree removals are not related to the Trump administration’s separate planned wholesale redesign of the golf course.
Attorney Abbe Lowell repeatedly pressed Wischer during the hearing over whether the 2019 report was a credible explanation.
Wischer, a political appointee, has sought to maintain that the tree removals were entirely about “cleaning up the course” and not tied to Trump’s renovation efforts.
Ahead of the hearing, Trump attacked Reyes in a social media post after she rejected an effort overnight from the Justice Department to disqualify her from continuing to preside over the case.
Reyes denied a motion from Woodward seeking her recusal from the case where he had argued she harbored a clear political bias against the Trump administration.
“It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion,” Reyes said in her response. “But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record. By any objective measure, the Government fails to meet the standard for recusal. And the Court does not, on its review, conclude it is mandatory.”