Judge hits DOJ lawyers with barrage of questions on Kennedy Center renovation and Trump renaming
The judge in a court battle over efforts to add Donald Trump’s name to the front of the Kennedy Center peppered the administration’s lawyers with questions Thursday on their rush to put the president’s name back on the building.The Trump-appointed board at the performance venue had voted earlier this month to add the words “renovated and restored by President Donald J.Trump” to the building, and to rename the property the “President Donald J.
Trump Plaza” by Sept.8.“What’s magic about that date?” U.S.
District Judge Christopher Cooper asked Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers, noting that it seems “expedited.”Mayers said that was the date the board had voted on, and a timetable it plans to stick to.Cooper then asked why adding Trump’s name to the building — the John F.Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts — would not violate federal appropriations rules that prevent aggrandizement, promoting a specific individual within a federal agency.Mayers said it would not be in violation because it’s honoring Trump in his role as president, not as chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center.“That’s cutting it a little fine, isn’t it?” the judge asked.Mayers said he was being true to the statute.The judge did not rule on any of the issues at the hearing but said he was considering a temporary pause on the Sept.
8 date so that he can fully weigh the legal issues.“There may be a temporary holding pattern while we can give the issues the attention they deserve,” Cooper said.The hearing comes after a Justice Department lawyer suggested in a court filing this week that the center may have to be demolished if Trump’s name isn’t allowed to be added to the site.“The Board also underscores, and the undisputed evidence demonstrates, that without the prominent recognition of The Trump Administration, and President Trump’s efforts, the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and s...