Judge Temporarily Blocks Closure of East Potomac Park as Trump Golf Project Faces Court Scrutiny

On Saturday, a day before East Potomac Park was due to close, a federal judge in Washington ordered it to stay open. Judge Ana C. Reyes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the closure President Trump had announced appeared designed to start the process of turning the park into a championship golf course.

The park's municipal golf course, picnic areas and paths were to shut on Sunday ahead of the renovation Mr. Trump has called for. Judge Reyes's 30-page order says the administration will not have to operate the course while the case continues. But it requires the golf courses, paths and picnic areas to remain "open and accessible to the public." The order holds for two weeks. She left the administration one opening: it may close parts of the park it considers hazardous, provided it notifies the court within 24 hours.

She was unpersuaded by most of the government's stated reasons for closing the whole park, which she called "transparently pretextual." "The Department of the Interior has progressed from removing the trees to removing the people," she wrote. She concluded that "President Trump directed this closure for one reason: so that work could begin on a new Fazio Design to replace the current East Potomac Golf Course."

The ruling is the latest setback for Mr. Trump's renovation projects in the capital, which have repeatedly ended up in court. A preservationist organization and local golfers sued in February, arguing that the project threatens a historic course that remains a cheap, accessible option for recreational players. Judge Reyes had previously issued rulings on a narrower question, whether the administration could clear trees at the site. Saturday's order was her first to block work at the park more generally.

The case has grown contentious. Judge Reyes has repeatedly accused administration officials of concealing their efforts to advance Mr. Trump's ideas. Last week she appointed a former U.S. attorney as special master to investigate whether officials at the Justice and Interior Departments inappropriately withheld details from the court in October. At the start of a five-hour hearing on Friday, she said she had seen reports of whistle-blowers claiming some federal agencies destroyed documents after the midterm elections. If she learned the Interior Department had destroyed documents despite her orders to preserve them, she said, she would begin contempt proceedings in a "zeptosecond."

The plan Mr. Trump has promoted would wipe out the public course, a picnic area at Hains Point, and the running and cycling paths there. His lawyers have said for months that the plans are not set in stone and that court intervention is premature. Adam R.F. Gustafson, a government lawyer, said that despite the closure, renovation was not necessarily imminent, and that there would be no rush to build until Interior finished environmental reviews and other preparations. "When the president speaks, the agency listens," he said. "But the agency has to comply with law." He echoed arguments from the Kennedy Center litigation, saying years of neglect made the course so dangerous that closure was needed to "protect life and limb." People were still golfing there Friday, he acknowledged, but he said safety concerns would grow after the National Links Trust, the current operator, gave up management on Sunday. The Trust agreed to relinquish control after Mr. Trump made clear he planned to close the course.

Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that the new course will be designed by Tom Fazio, who has worked on courses owned by the Trump Organization, which suggests the plans are well beyond preliminary. Judge Reyes asked Stanley Woodward Jr., a top Justice Department official, about Mr. Fazio's role. He said he would be "shocked to learn there is any contract with Fazio." Mr. Gustafson argued that closure does not make the Fazio plan more likely, and accused the judge of "bootstrapping one decision to a future decision."

Judge Reyes was skeptical, noting that the government kept describing its activity as routine maintenance even as it seemed to track the timeline Mr. Trump had posted online. "I spent 22 years at a law firm," she said. "The most important thing I learned is that the most important thing a lawyer has is their credibility and their reputation." Earlier Saturday, Mr. Trump had called the course the "Worst Golf Course anywhere in the World," described it as dangerous, and said the project would enhance the "Dignity, Beauty, and Importance of Washington, D.C."

What to watch next: the special master's inquiry into withheld information, any contempt proceedings tied to document preservation, and whether the environmental reviews and the Fazio design move forward once the two-week order runs out.