The ruling keeps Reyes on the case ahead of a 10 a.m. evidentiary hearing on Monday that she ordered Woodward to attend alongside Interior Department Deputy Chief of Staff Gregory Wischer and National Park Service official Jessica Bowron. Reyes halted further tree cutting at the park through Oct. 26 after learning crews had felled 430 of 729 trees slated for removal following a 4:55 p.m. Friday notice ahead of a holiday weekend.
On Sunday night, the Justice Department told Reyes in a separate court-ordered filing that President Donald Trump's newly unveiled Tom Fazio design to close the 106 year old Washington facility on Nov. 15 for 15 months of championship renovations "is not final because the Park Service has not completed its review and details of the proposal are subject to change." Pressed to reconcile Trump's announcement with an Oct. 16 government filing claiming he had given the rebuild only "preliminary thought," the department said its lawyers had merely been interpreting Trump's public statements rather than representing his actual thinking.