DOJ raises 'national security' concerns in legal fight over Trump ballroom
Even before a federal judge has decided whether he'll halt construction of the White House ballroom, the Trump administration has preemptively asked the judge to stay any injunction he might issue, warning that the project is "imperative for reasons of national security."
The government’s overnight filing, entered just before the end of the day Monday, also says halting the construction would "leave an unsightly excavation site in President’s Park indefinitely."
The administration’s stay motion comes a week-and-a-half after Judge Richard Leon publicly aired his deep skepticism of the government’s arguments that the president has the power to build a ballroom with private donations and without express authorization from Congress, comparing the plan to a “Rube Goldberg contraption." Leon also said he expected the losing side of the case to appeal.
The Justice Department’s filing restates many of the arguments its lawyer made before Leon last month, including the administration’s view that it would be "unworkable" to allow security-related portions of the project to continue while work on the ballroom has been stopped.
"[A]s the Secret Service attested, halting construction would imperil the President and others who live and work in the White House," the administration argues, citing a senior agency official who said in court papers last month that the current open construction site is, "in and of itself, a hazard and complicates Secret Service operations."
The government now says it will submit a second classified declaration from the Secret Service that further explains why halting construction "will endanger national security and therefore impair the public interest."
It’s widely believed the plan is to replace the bunker FDR had built underneath the East Wing -- destroyed in the demolition.
The filing also casts the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s challenge to the project as one that presents questions judges have never grappled with before, including whether a 1912 statute prohibiting the construction of federal buildings absent congressional authorization applies to the president.
Acknowledging Leon’s own expectation of an appeal by the losing side, the Justice Department is preemptively asking him to press pause on a potential ruling against the government.
"The D.C. Circuit should have the opportunity to weigh in on these significant and novel issues of first impression before the President is ordered to stop work in the middle of a high-priority construction project that implicates national security," the filing concludes.
