Scott MacFarlane Details Judge Reyes's Furious Clash With DOJ

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. just screamed at Trump regime DOJ lawyers in open court. And I mean screamed, might as touch Washington, D.C. bureau chief Scott McFarland was in the court and reported back to us everything he observed at this hearing. The federal judge is judge Anna Reyes and the case that issue involves a lawsuit against the Trump regime for the Trump regime's decision to destroy the East Potomac public golf course. A golf course when I went to undergrad at George Washington University and law school at Georgetown that I played at and visited. It was beautiful and incredible park open to the public. The Trump regime wants to turn it into a Donald Trump Frankenstein golf course. So a D.C. preservation group filed a lawsuit to block the Trump regime from destroying the golf course and ripping up the trees and just making a mess of the place as Donald Trump has done throughout D.C. with other landmarks. Now at a prior court hearing the court and the Trump regime lawyers reached an understanding and the Trump regime lawyers promised we won't rip down any trees or do any material work on the East Potomac public golf course unless we provide sufficient notice to the court in advance. The federal court judge Reyes at that prior hearing said can I really trust you? I better not find out that you have ripped up trees and you're destroying the course. Do I need to issue a written order? The Trump regime lawyers said we promise you don't need to do a written order. The plaintiffs in the case said judge you need to do a written order. They lie about everything and the judge says well they're making this representation in open court. If they lie there can be serious consequences because they're making the representation in open court. So I don't need to do a written order. I will take their word for it and what did the Trump regime DOJ lawyers do? They lied to the court. This weekend here is what we learned the plaintiffs group filed an emergency motion yesterday saying the die has now been cast. Despite the court's admonitions at 4.55 p.m. on Friday, preceding the holiday weekend, defendants Trump regime announced their intent to begin. Barely 12 hours later, a massive operation to clear 529 trees at the East Potomac Golf Course took place. Plaintiffs received no more notice than the court did and immediately requested a conference to meet and confer. By 8 a.m. on Saturday, defendants Trump regime workers had arrived in full force to begin felling, destroying, ripping down hundreds of trees, including healthy, mature oaks and maples. Defendants council made themselves available to meet and confer the afternoon of Sunday, October 11. Shortly before that conference, defendants notified plaintiffs that their tree raising operation was proceeding faster than anticipated and that a total of 529 trees had already been destroyed on Saturday alone and that contrary to their Friday declaration, hundreds of additional trees would be failed imminently. As defendants council explained during the meeting confer, only the rain on Sunday delayed further tree removal. Defendants council confirmed that the tree raising will resume as soon as the weather permits. So the plaintiffs in this case, they filed an emergency motion before the federal judge and the federal judge held a hearing this morning. Judge Reyes was furious and she was screaming and she said I repeatedly told the government to inform this court before any major demolition work was done on the golf course. The abrupt removal of 500 trees without notice has cost the government all credibility in this case. She was yelling ignorance is not an excuse. She told the DOJ after they said they weren't aware of the details of the tree cutting plan despite having an inkling and Kyle Chenny was in the court as well. Now Judge Reyes was on a tear again. She was screaming we hear literally at the top of her lungs. I'll bring in Scott McFarlane in a moment but the way he describes it to me was that it was like the loudest coach yelling basically. I was hearing from everybody on plaintiff's side this was going to happen. I said repeatedly no, I trust the government. I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done. Not only does that make it inexcusable, I'm just at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than Ockham's razor's time that the government precisely intended to do precisely what it has done, which is intentionally delay letting the plaintiffs and the court know what is happening so they can put a plan in place to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees. Reyes on her order to bar tree cutting through at least tomorrow 7 a.m. If that order is violated by two seconds, there's going to be contempt proceedings. So then she said I want witnesses. I'm going to do a mini trial right now and get to the bottom of who violated the court's prior understanding with the DOJ. So you had Kevin Grease, the park service official overseeing the golf course work, said the work is being done by 20 to 40 personnel who were initially tasked with America's 250 DC projects, but then assigned to this. Reyes then ordered deputy director of the National Park Service to testify. They brought on the stand, a guy named Frank Lans, the deputy director of the National Park Service, who said he was told to implement the golf course plan by department of interior deputy chief of staff, Greg Whisker. So Reyes says fine Whisker, get him right now, we're going to bring Whisker. We are doing a mini trial fact-finding. We're going to get to the bottom of this and the court may hold somebody in contempt. Now the government said 430 trees, not the 529 were actually removed, but they lie about everything. Then the federal judge said on what universe did anyone in your office think this was acceptable? The Trump DOJ lawyer said, "We did our best, Your Honor," and then the judge said, "No, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst is what you did. Your absolute worst." Also, the National Park Service superintendant who testified said there was no identifiable hazard or safety concerns among the 430 cut-down trees this weekend at East Potomac. So the federal judge says, "Okay, so this was just like you don't like the trees, so we're going to just start cutting down oaks and maples, and that's what you're going to do and just violate the prior order of the court." Seriously, that's what you're doing. And then Judge Reyes said, "Because we are now talking about potential multiple misrepresentations to the court, and the only reason, the only reason I have not yet entered a show cause on contempt is because I never put this in a formal order which believe me, I'm regretting. I want to see Greg Whisker testify tomorrow, then I'll decide what I'm going to do in terms of contempt." Then the Trump DOJ lawyer said, "Oh, we don't want Greg Whisker to testify. Why is he relevant to which the federal judge says it's relevant to find out if I've been lied to? I'm beyond disappointed in the government right now." And she extended the temporary restraining order blocking further cutting down of the trees, which was agreed to before. Greg Whisker is going to be testifying tomorrow. I want to bring in Scott McFarland. Scott McFarland, of course, heads the Midas Touch Network Washington, DC Bureau. He also leads Scott McFarland reports. Make sure you subscribe to Scott McFarland on his YouTube channel. Also get WTF America, the hardcover or the ebook or the audiobook. The book that's coming out next week that I wrote with my brothers. Let's bring in my interview with Scott McFarland. He was inside the courtroom. Let's bring in that interview. Now, let's bring in Scott McFarland from Scott McFarland reports and from the Midas Touch Network. Scott, great to see you were in the court. So, want to hear from you firsthand what you observed during those proceedings today. Let's just start with the fundamentals. Ben, I've never seen anything like that before. Imagine the loudest you've ever screamed at somebody or the loudest anybody's ever screamed at you. Full-throated with everything you've got. That's how loud. Judge Anna Reyes was yelling at the Department of Justice and the Trump administration lawyers in court in a public hearing for an extended period of time. The fundamental dynamic here is over this toppling of 430 trees at the East Potomac Park golf course overseen by the National Park Service right there on the river in Washington, DC. But it's not a dispute over trees. It's a dispute over the fundamental rule of law. This is going to be the battleground, at least one of the battlegrounds been in which the judicial branch tries to put a proper check on the executive branch running wild. Pretty clear. the judge says if you want to chop down trees, you got to give me notice, you got to give the plaintiffs notice. And what happens with barely any notice, not sufficient notice, the park service topples 430 trees on a Saturday morning. And the judge is making clear here, Ben. You didn't listen to me. I was ignored. I couldn't have been more clear. The Department of Justice, she said, has lost all credibility. Now, when you're talking about the judge screaming as loud as you've ever heard screaming, I mean, we're talking like the loudest football coach, you know, yelling on the side like that's what it was like. Like Mike Ditka, only modern day. I mean, joy at the attorneys and she didn't stop. And I think part of that was to emphasize a point of you're not hearing me. I told you you can't do this. You said you heard me when I said you couldn't do this, but you went ahead and did it anyhow as the hearing developed. This was a three hour court hearing over the tree toppling at a golf course in Washington, DC. As the hearing developed, you could see nobody was taking accountability. There was buck passing first of all by the Trump administration lawyers. The judge asked, well, then who made the actual decision if not the lawyers and the lawyers pointed to a national park service supervisor and obscure a federal bureaucrat. The judge says, find that person, get that person into the courtroom a few minutes later by zoom that national park service supervisor appears. He hems and haws answers a few questions, but doesn't take ultimate accountability for toppling the trees and he points to a deputy director of the national park service. Judge stops things makes them track down the deputy director of the national park service who I swear was in his car and doing this hearing by zoom minutes later. That went on for a while. He passed the buck to the deputy chief of staff of Secretary of Interior Doug Burgham, a political actor now. The judge says, find that deputy chief of staff. The Trump administration lawyers said they couldn't find them because of the holiday, the indigenous people stay holiday. The judge says, okay, I want him in court tomorrow. Somebody ignored my orders and that can't be. And then the Trump DOJ kind of pushed they had the audacity after all of that right to kind of push back on her there and say, well, why would we have to bring him and there was still a little hamming and hauling over that order because look, I think we all know where this goes directly. Trump made the order to Burgham who said do this and I'm sure there were people who were like, but the court and they said, damn the torpedoes, damn the court, cut down the trees. I mean, that's we kind of know the ending of this story. Now it's the cover up, right? But that's what the Trump DOJ wants to avoid and we all know where this is heading. Spot on that was the seminal moment and it came in the 11th hour of this marathon hearing the Department of Justice lawyers asked the judge, why do we need to bring in the deputy chief of staff of the Department of Interior and the judge said, if you don't know the answer to that question, you're a bigger problem than I thought you do. It was the subtext of this entire marathon hearing. It was unspoken for the first two hours and 45 minutes that clearly this came from some political person. There was some direction given and you could watch and hear been the career civil servants tried to fall on those landmines. As best they could on behalf of the political people, but they just couldn't get past Judge Reyes. She wanted the buck to stop being passed. She wanted to know who made the decision and the timeline here is important. It's not just about trees. The decision to cut down the trees was made at some point in early October. The trees were chopped down Saturday, October 10th. The judge and the plaintiffs weren't notified until the night of October 9th. That is not sufficient notice and a lot of time went by between the decision and the notification. That's where the judge believes her orders were ignored. Perhaps there's going to be a contempt issue here for whoever's responsible for it. She's just trying to figure out who's responsible for it and you could tell like a dog on a bone. She's not going to let this go. In a prior hearing, the Trump DOJ told the judge, "You got nothing to worry about." The plaintiffs' lawyers representing the preservation group were saying, "No, you can't trust them. If you don't do a written order, they're going to chop down the trees." We've seen them do this before, so you've got to do it. The Trump lawyers trust us. We would never do that. The judge says, "I know about the past that this Trump government has done, but you're giving me your word." So you promise that you will give the notice before any material changes so we can do a hearing. Judge, we promise. And then the plaintiffs' lawyers filed this emergency petition on Sunday, the day before Indigenous Peoples, the day before today. And the plaintiffs' lawyers said, "Look, they lied to you. We told you the die has been cast. This is exactly what we warned." And then they talked to us about that because then the judge was like, "I actually can't believe that I even trusted you." Like at some point there was a moment there. Talk to us about that. The plaintiffs' lawyers did bend, argue, "You can't just take their word for it because not just because we have a suspicion, not just because we're cynical, but because that's past practice. The Department of Justice will try to circumvent court orders if they can find the wiggle room to do so." The plaintiffs' lawyers made that clear, and I suppose they felt somewhat vindicated today, but it's too late. They can't re-establish 430 toppled trees. A few things, though. First of all, this is not the first judge to tell the Department of Justice, "You've lost your credibility. I don't trust you." Same thing happened in Oregon with a federal judge amid these Department of Justice attempts to seize voter rolls from states. We've seen grand juries and judges say, "We don't trust what you're presenting to us in court. That's why some of the judges have expressed concern about how they politically weaponized their prosecutions and grand juries have rejected cases." But there's another case study that came in just the past 24 hours. The plaintiffs who've sued to get a judge to halt those taxpayer-funded, Trump's self-aggrandizing TV commercials said, "Judge, you can't take their word for it. They're claiming the ads are done, and if there's no further plan to air more ads, effective October 12th." But the plaintiffs said, "You can't believe them. They'll go back on their word." A judge in New York seemed to side with the plaintiffs and said, "You know what? Here's a court order. No more ads till we hash out this federal lawsuit." And before we go about perhaps broader implications as we head past the midterms and we can see a lot of litigation being brought against Trump and the DOJ, especially as Democrats are likely to control the House and perhaps the Senate as well. That means they can bring lawsuits now. And now, you know, so when the Trump regime asserts this privilege or that privilege and does all of the things they want to do to obstruct, they've now lost all credibility in federal court at a time where they would need it the most. So there's that aspect of it too, the big picture, the broader game, which Donald Trump in his whole life has always biopically thought about the next fraud, but I think we're going to see that here before we go in any thoughts on that. That's exactly the issue. This is more than just about trees, and it's not lost on me. 430 trees being knocked down is not a good thing, but that's not the issue here. The issue is if Democrats get control of Congress, issue subpoenas, order depositions, and team Trump says, screw you, we're not coming to your hearing, we're just not going to do it. Then the courts have to get involved. And if team Trump does not honor court orders, this whole thing collapses. A Democratic US House and or Democratic US Senate is the real pressure test on this democracy because they're going to subpoena Trump's records, they're going to subpoena members of the cabinet or the staff. And if team Trump just says, no, we're just not going to do it. Make us. It comes down to judges like Anna Reyes or judges in Oregon, California, New York, and Florida to try to help Congress assert its article on authority. And we're about to find out just how respectful team Trump is of judges orders because they're ignoring the judge apparently on something as small as trees. Yeah, and the federal judge Reyes asked the Trump lawyers. So were the trees posing a danger? Was there some reason you did it? They were like, no, we just did it. They just did it. And so the judge was like, you just did it because you wanted to take down trees like you did this because they had to come down. And so also there is an aspect of it too, which is just like, you know, Trump and Doug Burgham were like, just take them down. Then we don't like the trees. We want them down. And there's that which speaks to, you know, all of these broader, these broader issues. But Scott, thanks for reporting from the courthouse appreciate you as everybody subscribe to Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel. Scott McFarlane reports over there, subscribe to his sub stack as well. Scott, it's great to have you lead in your DC bureau and appreciate all the work you're doing. Thank you, Ben. Everybody hit subscribe here. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. But more importantly subscribe to Scott's YouTube channel. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back to pre-order scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this. [Music] (upbeat music)