The Trump administration is fighting to keep details of its Kennedy Center renovation plans secret, even as the president pushes to put his name on the Washington landmark.
In a filing Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers urged a federal judge to end discovery in a lawsuit brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, arguing that the government has provided enough information and that further demands for documents are unnecessary.
“Enough is enough,” DOJ lawyers wrote, asking the court to shut down Beatty’s efforts to obtain additional records about Trump’s involvement in the planned overhaul.
Beatty is the sole member of the board seeking to block the president’s plan to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation and to keep Trump from restoring his name on the building after a judge ordered its removal.
She has previously described how Trump “went into a tantrum” during a Kennedy Center board meeting last month after losing his latest bid to inscribe his name on the building’s facade.
“It was the most unprofessional thing that I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of,” she said at the time.
“He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, ‘I think you’re incompetent.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re incompetent.’”
Beatty’s lawyers have filed a motion arguing that the administration has withheld documents that could shed light on Trump’s role in decisions affecting the institution.
Her lawyers have also challenged the administration’s use of presidential privilege to shield communications between Trump and Kennedy Center officials.
But government lawyers asked the court to “order discovery closed immediately” and pushed back against claims that releasing Trump’s communications would reveal misconduct by the administration.
“None of the voluminous evidence provided to her thus far supports her unfounded theories of impropriety,” the DOJ attorneys argued, describing Beatty’s motion as “desperate”.
Congress established the Kennedy Center in 1964 as a “living memorial” to assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
But after returning to office, Trump took control of the storied arts institution, replacing its leadership and installing a board that made him chairman.
In a move that enraged Kennedy’s family, the board—whose members include Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and country crooner Lee Greenwood—subsequently voted to add Trump’s name to the building.
However, Obama-appointed Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the attempt, prompting the administration to threaten to demolish the center entirely if it didn’t get its way.
Asked last month why it mattered so much to him to have his name on the Kennedy Center, Trump told reporters the place was a “mess.”
“The Kennedy Center for many years has lost tens of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a big loser, financially. And many other places like that, like Carnegie Hall and various places throughout the country, they lose a lot of money,” he said.
“So for the Trump administration, for me, to... take that long-term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it, I think the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”
