Biden-appointed judge with history of fiery Trump clashes erupts at DOJ: 'You've lost all credibility!'
A Biden-appointed federal judge who previously drew a formal misconduct complaint from President Donald Trump's Justice Department for alleged bias erupted at government lawyers again Monday, in a heated showdown over rapid tree removal at a historic golf course on national parkland.
Judge Ana Reyes unleashed her latest rebuke during an emergency hearing over hundreds of trees removed from East Potomac Golf Links in Hains Point, D.C. Trump wants to transform the historic public facility into a championship-caliber golf course like his courses in the U.S., Ireland and Scotland – the latest courtroom collision between the administration and its political opponents.
Journalist Scott MacFarlane, who live-tweeted from the hearing, described Reyes as "scream[ing]" at administration attorneys over the government's late-Friday notification that tree removal would begin Saturday. A government lawyer acknowledged that approximately 430 trees had already been cut down, according to MacFarlane.
"You've lost credibility!" Reyes told government attorneys, according to MacFarlane's live courtroom reporting.
The administration maintains that the removals implement a 2019 National Park Service landscape-restoration plan predating Trump's redesign proposal for the links, which sit on an island connected to the city proper by the Jefferson Memorial and Francis Case Bridge at its western edge.
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Reyes, who was born in Uruguay and nominated by Biden in 2023, previously grilled a Trump administration attorney about his religious beliefs during litigation challenging Trump's restrictions on transgender military service — an order she called "biologically inaccurate" according to the Washington Post.
The judge questioned how Jesus Christ would respond to "telling a group of people that they are so worthless, so worthless that we’re not going to allow them into homeless shelters?" according to then-DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle’s complaint.
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In a 2025 case, Reyes ruled that Trump violated federal notice requirements when he fired several inspectors general but then declined to reinstate them, according to Reuters.
Monday's hearing brought another heated exchange, this time over when government lawyers learned of the tree-removal operation and why they waited until the end of the workweek to notify the court.
"At 4:55pm on a Friday of a holiday weekend, the plaintiffs and I get [little] notice that hundreds of trees are going to be chopped down," Reyes reportedly fumed at the government, according to MacFarlane.
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When government counsel reportedly acknowledged learning of the operation on Oct. 8 or 9 and said officials were awaiting details, Reyes demanded:
"Do you have email or a cell phone?"
MacFarlane tweeted that he had never heard a judge "scream at full-voice at a lawyer before," while the UK Independent reported Reyes excoriated federal counsel for about 15 minutes.
The uproar comes as preservationists and progressive interests challenge the administration, including former Obama ethics lawyer Norm Eisen — who has engineered a "broad legal resistance" to the president through his group Democracy Defenders Fund, according to its mission statement.
Eisen tweeted a victory lap Monday after the court agreed to hear the case in an "emergency’ setting.
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Preservationists argued the administration has not satisfied applicable environmental and historic-preservation requirements.
The administration disputed that argument, maintaining that the tree removal is authorized NPS landscape management separate from Trump's proposed links renovation.