Federal judge indicates he won’t halt the White House ballroom project

By Devan Cole, Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge indicated Tuesday that he won’t order President Donald Trump to immediately stop work on the massive new White House ballroom.

But US District Judge Richard Leon left open the possibility that he could intervene in the high-stakes legal fight over the project at a later time.

For now, Leon said, the nation’s top historic preservation group that sued over the project hadn’t shown how it was being irreparably harmed by the construction in a way that required immediate court intervention.

But Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, warned that that underground work set to be completed in coming months must not dictate the ballroom’s eventual size or shape.

If it does, he said, it would have to be taken down.

Justice Department lawyer Adam Gustafson was unable to say if it was possible or likely that pouring concrete below ground would dictate the building’s eventual height or width.

“I’m not an engineer,” Gustafson said, adding that nothing suggested it would be impossible to change. He said repeatedly that the ballroom’s design is still “in progress” and the plans have “not been finalized.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued last week over the sprawling, privately funded project, claiming the White House has been unlawfully carrying out the construction because Trump hasn’t gotten approval from Congress or submitted his plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts for review, which would give the public a chance to weigh in.

The group asked Leon to issue an emergency court order that would pause any further work on the ballroom until Congress authorizes it, the commissions review it and relevant environmental assessments are completed.

Leon on Tuesday affirmed that the court would hold the Trump administration accountable to its assertion that officials would be holding a meeting with the National Capital Planning Commission, which it agreed to do by the end of December.

“Let me assure you of something, the court will hold them to that,” the judge said.

There have already been some clashes over the project. Earlier this month, Trump hired a new architect amid disputes over the scope and size of the ballroom with the original architect.

Trump, according to a memorandum from the Justice Department, has been “has been intimately engaged in the implementation phase.”

The president has maintained the White House project wasn’t subject to any oversight and should be able to continue with it without any serious scrutiny.

Yet the lawsuit, coming weeks after crews finished tearing down the historic East Wing, quickly put the president on the defense and forced officials to reveal in court papers more about what was being done behind the scenes.

In court on Tuesday, Ted Heuer, an attorney for the preservation group, told the judge it was worried that absent his intervention now, the “location, size and shape” of the ballroom would be “locked in” given the ongoing below-ground work and said their case was all about ensuring the president followed federal law governing construction projects in Washington, DC.

”It’s not about the need for a ballroom, it’s about the need to follow the law,” Heuer said, adding that had the group seen the assessments that were revealed in court papers Monday sooner, “we would have sued” before demolition of the East Wing began.

Leon set another hearing in the case for mid-January.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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