'Sit down!' Trump lawyer already having trouble in court showdown

The hearing over the East Potomac Golf course battle with President Donald Trump kicked off on Monday morning after Judge Ana Reyes, in a a late-night court filing, refused to recuse herself from the case despite the administration's claim she was too overly emotional to preside. At one point, Trump's lawyer started to stand, and she told him to sit.

The judge opened the hearing sarcastically, saying, "I trust everyone's weekend was as relaxing as mine and my clerk's."

Lawfare's Roger Parloff was on hand transcribing the hearing.

The first thing Judge Reyes did was order Trump administration lawyer Stanley Woodward to refile his submission from the previous night with as many Justice Department attorneys as are willing to sign it.

"Raise your hand if you're willing to sign it," she said to the lawyers.

Woodward said that it isn't an appropriate request.

"Right now, for rule 11 purposes, which other attorneys are willing to sign this brief?" she asked

"I'm going to instruct attorneys not to answer," Woodward said.

"I'm ordering you all to come to the podium and sign it. I'm giving them a direct order. If they want to disobey ... you've made filing ... officer of court ... you signed it. I'm entitled to know what other DOJ attorneys are willing to sign it," she said, speaking of a filing from this morning, not the one ordering her to step down.

The judge gave Woodward until 3 p.m. to refile a brief arguing why Justice Department attorneys shouldn't respond to her direct order.

She went on to read an explanation of why she believes she has the legal authority to demand this testimony.

After walking through her ruling overnight, she called the whole ordeal an exceptional situation.

"I don't know that I need to find bad faith ... that noted, the court is not required to exhibit naïveté from which ordinary citizens are free," she said.

She explained that by now, everyone has seen President Donald Trump's post on Truth Social demanding that the current golf course be destroyed. He ordered work to begin "immediately." Meanwhile, the Department of Interior has claimed there's nothing to see. In fact, they said that the government was executing a 2019 plan, but Trump uploaded the real plan on Truth Social that he wants to begin immediately.

Judge Reyes called it a strong indication of bad faith while arguing that the judge is violating fundamental separation-of-powers principles. Trump claims that the judge can't compel testimony from high-level officials.

"But people I heard from last week and will hear from today (unlike those in precedents government cited) each has personal knowledge of facts of this case," she explained. "It will help me understand if the agency has been accurate and forthcoming ... It is essential to understanding how the plan was developed."

She also said that these weren't "high-ranking officials." That would include Secretary Doug Burgum, whom she has not compelled to appear and no one at the White House has been asked to appear at this time.

She then said that "the government's behavior in this case has been nothing if not extraordinary."

The questioning then began.

One thing she asked was whether the DOJ believed last week during the hearing if the Transportation Management Plan (TMP) had anything to do with the redesign of the golf course. At that point they said that it had nothing to do with the redesign.

"Did they know whether that was accurate?" the judge asked.

Woodward began to stand up.

"Sit down," the judge ordered.