'Unconscionable': Lawyers hit back after Trump admin suggests Kennedy Center could be demolished
The Justice Department suggested in a court filing Tuesday that the Kennedy Center could face demolition in the event a federal judge issues an order permanently blocking President Donald Trump's push to renovate the facility with additions intended to recognize Trump personally.
In an extraordinary filing that at times reads like a post from Trump's social media platform, Brantley Mayers — a top official in DOJ's Civil Division — argues the "decrepit" Kennedy Center faces an imminent "death spiral" without Trump's intervention.
"Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years," the filing said. "Such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain."
Mayers uses the filing to repeatedly attack Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center's board who filed suit last year to have Trump's name removed from the building. Beatty's lawsuit argued the board’s vote to rename the building was illegal because an act of Congress is required for such an action.
Permitting Beatty's legal efforts to continue, Mayers warns the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit, "almost guarantees the continued decline and eventual demise of the Kennedy Center, probably leading to the construction of a new, but very different kind, of venue."
In a statement responding to the papers filed by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, lawyers for Beatty called DOJ's filing "legally baseless" and said it was "unconscionable" that DOJ would threaten to demolish the Kennedy Center if the court were to block the planned renovations.
“This is a not-so-subtle threat to demolish the Kennedy Center if the President doesn’t get his way. This is unconscionable, it is unbecoming of the Department of Justice to even put this in a filing, and we will answer in court," attorneys Norman Eisen Nathaniel Zelinsky said in a statement.
The DOJ describes the initiatives approved by the Kennedy Center's board that intend to honor Trump personally for his effort — including adding the inscription "Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump" on the front of the building and renaming the site that contains the Center the "President Donald J. Trump Plaza" — as "crucial" to ensure payments from donors who have already pledged to help fund the renovation effort.
"An order blocking the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop," the department argues. "There will simply not be the expertise or funding necessary to rebuild and renovate this decimated structure. The Trump Administration is ready to go but, without it, the Kennedy Center cannot be saved."
U.S. District Judge Christopher Coper has scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Thursday on an emergency motion filed by Beatty seeking an injunction to block the re-adding of Trump's name on the performing arts center.
