A Biden-appointed federal judge opened a formal probe into whether Justice Department lawyers misled her court over President Trump’s East Potomac golf redesign, raising the stakes in a fight already limiting tree work at the D.C. course.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes announced the inquiry during a Friday hearing after sparring with DOJ’s No. 3 official, Stanley Woodward, over what her court had been told about the project’s status.

Reyes said she will investigate herself or appoint a special master. The probe covers possible misrepresentations and ethical-rule breaches by agency officials, agency attorneys, and DOJ lawyers in the long-running fight over East Potomac Golf Links, a public course on national parkland along the edge of the nation’s capital.

The Hill reported that Reyes acted after learning the government has been working to submit a redesign plan to the National Capital Planning Commission, the body that reviews major federal projects in the Washington area. She voiced frustration that DOJ had not previously informed her of that work.

President Trump has repeatedly pushed to turn the longtime public links into a championship-style course. In recent days he said the site will close beginning Nov. 15 so the project can move ahead. Recent clearing has already taken down hundreds of trees. Reyes has restricted further tree-cutting and imposed new notice rules, though she has not fully blocked the planned closure.

Reyes warns trust is gone after courtroom clash

Friday’s session was the latest in a flurry of hearings in which Reyes pressed DOJ attorneys hard on their representations about the project. She reminded Woodward that professional ethics rules bind lawyers who practice before her court.

When the exchange heated up, Reyes told Woodward to “finish that thought internally” and “talk about it at drinks with your friends.” Woodward pushed back on the suggestion that information had been wrongly withheld and argued that some of her questioning ran into executive privilege.

Woodward answered the television-style framing head-on.

"We're not on TV. I'm not a pundit."

Reyes then made the shift in her approach plain.

"Trust but verify... no longer."

She followed with the formal step that now hangs over the case.

"The court will open a formal inquiry into whether agency officials and employees, including agency attorneys and DOJ attorneys, have made misrepresentations to the court and otherwise violated ethical rules."

No finding of misconduct has been issued. The inquiry itself is the action on the table.

Hundreds of trees already down before the latest order

The tension did not start on Friday. In an earlier emergency hearing, Reyes erupted at government lawyers after late notice of tree removal on the parkland Trump wants rebuilt as a championship-caliber public course. Fox News reported that roughly 430 trees had already been cut after the government gave notice late on a Friday of a holiday weekend that work would begin the next day.

“You’ve lost credibility!” Reyes told the attorneys, according to courtroom reporting. She also fumed that plaintiffs and the court got scant notice at 4:55 p.m. that hundreds of trees were about to come down. The administration has maintained the removals carry out a 2019 National Park Service landscape-restoration plan that predates Trump’s redesign proposal.

That earlier showdown fits a pattern of sharp exchanges between the Biden-appointed judge and Trump administration lawyers. Reyes has a record of fiery clashes with the administration in other matters, and the golf-course docket has become another flash point.

In a separate hearing covered by the New York Post, Reyes warned of “serious consequences” if the administration renovated without proper notice. She cited recent District projects and said she did not want a repeat of an act-first, deal-with-the-fallout-later approach.

“Let’s just say, given some issues around the District recently, I would have a particular concern that we not act first and ask forgiveness later,” Reyes said. “If anything like that happens, there are going to be serious consequences.” She added she did not want to be told after the fact by the government, a foundation, or a bulldozing company that it was too late to act. Plaintiffs argued the administration chose arbitrariness over the law.

Those notice demands are the backdrop for the current restrictions on further clearing and the new requirements Reyes has already put in place while the broader case continues.

Administration files notice: course closes Nov. 15

Even as the inquiry opens, the Justice Department has put the closure date on the record. A Just the News account of the court filing states that, consistent with the president’s directive, East Potomac Golf Course will close on Nov. 15 for the renovation. The National Park Service is to submit a Tom Fazio rendering for a U.S. Open-capable public course to the National Capital Planning Commission.

Trump has said the finished course will be open to the public, with a reduced rate for Washington, D.C., residents, and that it is expected to rank among the finest anywhere. He also vowed an immediate appeal of the preliminary injunction Reyes granted to preservationists and local golfers who sued to halt tree-cutting for the redevelopment.

“We will immediately appeal this decision,” Trump said. “When completed, it is anticipated that this Course, which will be open to the Public, at a reduced rate for those living in Washington, D.C., will be one of the finest anywhere in the World.”

That same posture appears in a filing highlighted by Breitbart: the Interior Department, in a notice signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, told the court the course will close Nov. 15 as planned. The filing came after Reyes had ordered advance notification of park changes following earlier DOJ assurances the course would not close. Trump had already overseen the removal of more than 400 trees and continues to frame the project as a renovation into a world-class public course.

On Truth Social, Trump went further on safety at the existing layout, writing that the administration would “hold the judge, Ana C. Reyes, fully responsible for anybody who is hurt, or killed, on this very dangerous, dilapidated, and unsightly Golf Course.” That warning tracks with other coverage of how Trump pins full blame on Judge Reyes if anyone is hurt on the hazardous East Potomac course.

Planning commission review and the limits of the injunction

Reyes’s frustration at Friday’s hearing centered on learning, later than she wanted, that the government was preparing to send the redesign to the National Capital Planning Commission. That commission examines major government projects in the Washington area. The judge has not barred the Nov. 15 closure outright. She has instead limited further tree work and tightened notice rules while the misconduct inquiry proceeds.

Preservationists and local golfers remain the plaintiffs seeking to stop the major redevelopment. The administration’s position is that it is executing presidential direction, moving a public amenity from a run-down condition toward a championship standard, and following planning channels that include the commission review. Woodward’s courtroom pushback, including the executive-privilege point, shows DOJ is not treating the judge’s questioning as a blank check.

Federal judges and the Trump administration have clashed across multiple dockets this term. In some of those fights the administration has prevailed, including cases where federal courts clear Trump administration policy moves on immigration protections. The East Potomac case is different in posture: Reyes is still overseeing the project, has already narrowed field work, and has now opened an ethics-style inquiry aimed at the government’s own lawyers.

The political noise around the project keeps rising. Trump has also pressed other institutional barriers in high-profile settings, from ballot fights to national-security personnel choices, including moments when Trump demands Peltola off a Senate ballot and when allies urge hard personnel calls ahead of major votes. The golf-course docket adds a local land-use fight, complete with tree counts, notice orders, and now a formal look at whether DOJ’s representations to the court met ethical standards.

What remains unsettled is narrow and concrete. Reyes has not decided whether she will run the inquiry personally or hand it to a special master. The public record described in coverage does not yet spell out the exact prior statements she views as incomplete or false. The redesign details headed to the planning commission are still being assembled. And the Nov. 15 closure date sits on the calendar while the tree-clearing limits and notice rules remain in force.

For taxpayers and D.C. residents who use public courses, the practical question is simpler than the courtroom rhetoric. A worn municipal layout is slated for a major upgrade under a president who plays and builds golf. A Biden-appointed judge who has already restricted work and scolded government lawyers has answered by putting DOJ’s own conduct under the microscope. Other disputes show the same friction over who sets the pace, including episodes where bipartisan lawmakers blast Trump on foreign-policy waivers, but this one is playing out on fairways and filing dockets a short drive from the Capitol.

Judges can demand candor from the lawyers who appear before them. Voters also hired an executive to fix neglected public ground, not to wait indefinitely while every tree and notice letter becomes a contempt drama. The inquiry will test the first duty. The unfinished course still tests the second.