Former Trump-appointed Prosecutor May Probe Government Attorney Ethics In Golf Course Case

A federal judge revealed Saturday that she plans to name Jessie Liu, a former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., during President Donald Trump’s first term, to probe potential misconduct by government attorneys in litigation over a public golf course Trump is seeking to revamp.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said in a brief order that she plans to tap Liu “to investigate whether Department of Justice or Department of the Interior counsel have committed ethical violations” in their handling of a lawsuit filed in February to halt alterations to the East Potomac Golf Links. Trump has sought to convert the public courses, which sit at the center of a D.C. public park, into a larger “championship-level” course.

Liu spent about a year and a half as U.S. Attorney in Washington before Trump nominated her in 2019 to become associate attorney general, the No. 3 post in the Justice Department. Her nomination was ultimately withdrawn after she faced resistance from Senate conservatives due to her role over a decade earlier in a women lawyers’ group that opposed Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation and supported abortion rights.

During President George W. Bush’s administration, Liu worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office she later ran, and held senior Justice Department roles. She is currently a named partner at a Washington law firm: Liu Shur Kravis. One of Liu’s partners there, Jonathan Kravis, resigned from the Justice Department in protest of its handling of a false-statements case against longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Reyes, the Biden appointee overseeing the golf course litigation, ordered the ethics inquiry last week after Trump announced on social media last month that the course and much of East Potomac Park would close Nov. 15 to begin the redesign project and address other infrastructure issues. Trump’s announcement came less than two weeks after the DOJ’s current No. 3 official, Stanley Woodward, assured her that there was no current plan to close the course on that date.

Reyes said she planned to appoint a special master to look into whether lawyers handling the litigation for the government acted in “bad faith” by denying there was any plan to close the course despite other officials drafting a renovation proposal to submit to the National Capital Planning Commission.

Reyes gave the Trump administration and the group suing over the proposed changes, the D.C. Preservation League, until Friday to submit any objections to Liu’s appointment.

At a hearing last week, Woodward said the appointment of a special master was unnecessary and inappropriate.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.