A federal judge on Friday warned that she will open contempt or sanctions proceedings against the Trump administration if she finds evidence that officials destroyed records related to President Donald Trump’s construction projects in Washington, as whistleblowers allege the Interior Department has been disposing of documents before Democrats take control of Congress, CNN and The Independent reported on Friday.
US District Judge Ana C. Reyes said at the start of the five-hour hearing that she had seen reports of whistleblowers claiming that federal agencies had destroyed documents after the midterm elections, and warned that any destruction in defiance of her orders to preserve records would trigger contempt proceedings, The New York Times reported.
Reyes is overseeing a lawsuit over Trump’s plan to close East Potomac Park and turn its public golf course into what he has called a “World Class, championship-level” facility.
“If I find credible evidence of any document destruction, I will start proceedings on sanctions or contempt within a zeptosecond,” she said, describing the shortest unit of time ever measured.
Whistleblowers allege Interior Department destroyed records
Several whistleblowers have approached the House Natural Resources Committee in recent weeks with concerns that the Interior Department, which oversees much of the national parkland Trump wants to use for his projects, was getting rid of records ahead of expected scrutiny, congressional sources told CNN.
The Interior Department called the claims “100% false.” “The Department follows all federal records management obligations as directed by the Department’s ethics officials,” a spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, Representative Jared Huffman of California, the committee’s top Democrat, sent letters to the Interior Department, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Agriculture Department, as well as to companies including Lockheed Martin and John Deere, which are known to have donated to Trump’s projects.
The letters ask recipients to preserve all records relevant to the committee’s oversight, recover any deleted information, and suspend any deletion practices, and require them to certify that they have complied.
The whistleblowers did not allege that the companies had destroyed documents.
Democrats plan probes into Trump’s DC construction projects
Huffman is set to become the committee’s chairman when Democrats take over the House in January, and aides expect to hold a high-profile hearing early in the new Congress, with the golf course and Trump’s planned triumphal arch near the top of the list.
The committee is prepared to issue subpoenas if the administration obstructs its work, according to CNN.
“Everything is coming; it’s all coming,” Huffman said. “It’s just going to be an entirely new day.”
He said the committee’s oversight could halt some of Trump’s projects, “especially because we have standing to go to court if we have to.”