Adopting Trump's voice, DOJ asks judge to let ballroom proceed

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department filed a remarkable motion late Monday, written in President Donald Trump’s recognizable online voice, explicitly linking the security breach at the White House correspondents’ dinner to the lawsuit over the president’s ballroom project.

The motion, signed by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and submitted by Stanley Woodward Jr., attacks the litigation against the ballroom the same way Trump has on social media. It asks Judge Richard J. Leon to backtrack and allow construction on the project to continue.

A court of appeals has already paused Leon’s earlier ruling until arguments in June. But the Justice Department’s latest motion makes an attempt to sway the litigation in the meantime, while taking the opportunity to flatter the president in dramatic terms.

“Because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed,” the filing states. “Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

The style of the motion leaves no doubt about the president’s significant influence over the decisions of the Justice Department. While parts of the motion are written in a traditional legal style, many sections are indistinguishable from the president’s combative posts on Truth Social.

“’The National Trust for Historic Preservation’ is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not,” the motion begins.

In the motion, the Trump administration asked that Leon issue an indicative ruling -- a nonbinding opinion signaling how he would approach the question if the case were returned to him. Such a ruling could inform the appeals court before its decision but would not immediately dissolve the earlier injunction or otherwise end the case.

There was little indication that Leon would do so, after repeatedly rebuffing government lawyers in court over claims that he could not intervene in matters involving national security.

Since the attempted attack at the dinner on Saturday, Trump and his allies have begun ramping up their push to dismiss the lawsuit filed by historic preservationists against the ballroom, which Trump has attempted to build without the approval of Congress. The lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation was filed after Trump abruptly tore down the White House’s historic East Wing without seeking approval from any oversight body.

Shortly after a gunman was arrested rushing toward guests at the Washington Hilton, Blanche wrote a letter to the historic preservationists, demanding they drop the suit and accusing them of putting Trump’s life at “grave risk.”

The National Trust has declined to voluntarily drop the case, despite pressure from a constellation of conservative voices online.

In a letter to the Justice Department on Sunday, Gregory Craig, a lawyer representing the National Trust, rejected calls to dismiss the suit.

“What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so,” the letter said.

Even if pushed through at an accelerated timeline, the planned ballroom would not be ready for use until near the end of Trump’s term.

Congressional Republicans have also ramped up their efforts since the breach to push for funding for Trump’s ballroom, which the president said previously would be funded completely through donations from wealthy businesses and individuals.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said Monday that he wanted Congress to move legislation as quickly as possible to provide $400 million for the construction of a secure White House ballroom that would also house national security facilities beneath it.

“Private donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying china and stuff like that,” Graham said.

Graham said Trump constantly brings up the ballroom to him “all the time,” even in unrelated conversations about golf or how he’s feeling.

“Like, ‘How you doing?’ ‘Where’s the ballroom?’ ‘How you playing?’ ‘I don’t know. I’d play better if you built the ballroom,’” Graham said of his conversations with the president. “It’s all the time.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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