The Trump Justice Department is asking a Biden-appointed federal judge to step aside from a D.C. golf course tree fight, saying she belittled government lawyers and questioned their intelligence.
The Justice Department filed a motion Friday seeking the recusal of U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes from a legal battle over tree removal at East Potomac Golf Links, a historic public course in Washington, D.C.
In the filing, the department said Reyes “repeatedly belittled and shouted at” the attorney representing the United States, “unfairly questioned Trump Administration attorneys’ intelligence,” and let “disdain for the Trump Administration” shape how hearings unfolded. Newsweek reported the department called her conduct “nothing short of egregious.”
The case is D.C. Preservation League v. Department of Interior. Plaintiffs include the D.C. Preservation League and two local residents, represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation. They sued over National Park Service plans to cut trees at the course.
Reyes, nominated by former President Joe Biden in 2022 and confirmed by the Senate in 2023, has already temporarily blocked further cutting and ordered senior Interior and Park Service officials to appear and prepare to testify under oath.
The Justice Department’s recusal motion frames the October 12 hearing as the core problem. It says Reyes showed “open hostility” and a “pattern of animus” toward the Trump administration, including conduct in other high-profile cases.
One exchange the department highlighted came when Reyes told government counsel:
“If you don’t understand the relevance of the questions we’re asking, the government has a much bigger problem than I understood it to have.”
When a lawyer said officials had done their best to gather information about the tree cutting, Reyes answered:
“No, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.”
The department also objects to her order that Gregory Wischer, the Interior secretary’s deputy chief of staff for policy, and Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, appear at an October 19 hearing ready to testify. The filing argues that compelling high-ranking executive officials without sufficient need disregards separation-of-powers principles.
Plaintiffs pushed back. In a court filing opposing removal, they said they were “aware of no basis for disqualification or recusal.” Democracy Forward Foundation told Newsweek it had no additional comment on the government’s motion.
The fight escalated fast in early October. On October 9, at 4:55 p.m., the government notified the court that the National Park Service planned to remove “up to 529 trees.” Work began the next morning.
In an October 13 opinion, Reyes wrote that about 430 healthy, non-invasive trees were removed. She said the government would have taken hundreds more but for a rain delay. She granted a temporary restraining order barring further removal through October 26.
Reyes concluded plaintiffs showed a likelihood of success on their claim that the Park Service failed to meet federal environmental-review requirements before the tree-removal plan. She also said the episode had “cost the government all of its credibility” in the case and added, “I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done.”
In the temporary restraining order context, she summarized the dispute this way:
“Breakneck speed to clear trees that posed no harm. The reason? Disputed. The budget? Unclear. The environmental impact? Unstudied. The urgency? None. Next steps: bulldoze hundreds more.”
The administration’s position is different. Interior previously said the work was meant to address tree overgrowth and restore the course’s historic character. Officials say the recent cutting stems from a 2019 National Park Service landscape plan, not from a brand-new Trump redesign.
On Sunday, President Trump announced on Truth Social that East Potomac Golf Links would close November 15 for about 15 months of renovations. He said the rebuilt course would reopen to the public and be designed to host major tournaments, including the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, and Presidents Cup.
He defended the overhaul by calling the course “completely overgrown, dysfunctional, and unsafe.” His posts did not address the litigation.
Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat whose district sits across the Potomac from Washington, criticized the announcement in a statement shared with Newsweek. He accused the administration of misleading the public about the earlier tree removal and said Trump was focused on building “an upscale golf course within walking distance of the White House.”
The Justice Department directed questions about the recusal fight to its filing. Interior referred questions to the Justice Department. Newsweek reached out to the National Park Service on Saturday as the dispute widened.
The department’s motion does more than complain about tone. It ties Reyes’s courtroom conduct to a broader claim that she has treated Trump administration lawyers with a pattern of hostility, and it points to a prior judicial misconduct complaint stemming from separate litigation over Trump military policy.
Reyes has already frozen further cutting, questioned the government’s haste and process, and hauled senior officials toward the witness chair. The Justice Department says that record shows bias serious enough that she should not keep the case. Plaintiffs say there is no basis to remove her.
The temporary halt runs through October 26. The ordered testimony hearing was set for October 19. The November 15 closure date for renovations now hangs over the same ground the parties are still fighting about in court.
When a federal judge turns a routine land-management dispute into a stage for dressing down the government’s lawyers, the Justice Department is right to demand a fair draw, not a bench already convinced of its own story.
