Judge Launches Investigation Into Whether Trump Officials Lied to Her

A federal judge on Friday announced the appointment of a special master to investigate whether Trump officials repeatedly lied to her about the president’s attempted takeover of the East Potomac Park golf course in Washington, D.C. The investigation will begin in a matter of days.In court Friday, a Justice Department lawyer tried to play dumb about what’s going on in the park, what Trump has publicly said about the park, and how the administration has flouted court orders. When U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes asked the lawyer if he “made any false statements of material fact that you’d like to correct,” the attorney said “not to my knowledge,” drawing Reyes’s ire.The lawyer claimed that he was new to the case, saying, “We have lots of binders.” Reyes tried to remedy the situation by calling an Interior Department official and asking them the same question, only to get the same answer: “Not to my knowledge.” When Reyes asked if the official’s boss, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, was involved in the park project, the official asked, “What do you mean by ‘involved?’” This prompted Reyes to pull out a dictionary to read the definition of “involved.”The official then said that Burgum was aware of the renovation project, but wasn’t involved, to which Reyes noted that he toured the golf course. “He doesn’t have a body double, does he?” Reyes quipped.After Reyes asked when the Department of Interior became aware of plans to close the park on November 15, the official seemed ignorant, prompting Reyes to ask if she needed to look up “plan” in the dictionary.Reyes noted that Trump wrote on Truth Social October 18 that the park was closing on November 15, and that the DOJ “swore up and down” the next day that park wasn’t closing then, only to later change its story and confirm the November 15 closure date. At that point, assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the number three person at the DOJ, intervened and tried to halt the questioning of the Interior Department official.“It sounds like you don’t want him to answer a very straightforward question,” Reyes said, before allowing the official to step away. Woodward then started answering Reyes’s questions, saying that the closure plan was “noticed” on October 28. He tried to claim that Trump’s post said the park “should” be closed, only for Reyes to correct him and point out that Trump wrote “will be” closed.The hearing didn’t get any better from there, as Woodward attempted to explain away Trump’s posts by claiming there were no plans to close the golf course, questioning whether those words constitute “plans” or “orders.” Woodward went as far as to try to claim “executive privilege” over Trump’s social media posts, frustrating Reyes, who said, “That’s quite an extraordinary view of executive privilege.”The entire hearing continued on in this absurdity, with the DOJ letting slip that a new seawall at the park would cost between $150 million and a whopping $400 million. Trump administration lawyers became noticeably cagey about questions regarding the renovation’s costs after that.Trump is insisting on this project despite court orders and the law, and openly admits he’s ignoring Reyes’s rulings. Friday’s drama in court is an indication that Trump’s lawyers can’t come up with believable justifications for his haphazard decisions.Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that owns Truth Social, expects to be paid $350,000 for running ads about America’s 250th birthday celebrations.The 250th celebrations, a series of very disappointing events over the summer, were led by Freedom 250, a Trump-created group that took over a bipartisan committee commissioned by Congress to plan the anniversary. Freedom 250 was officially housed under the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit that is supposed to raise money for the National Park Service—on whose board Trump Media board member Meredith O’Rourke also happens to sit.Trump still owns a 41 percent stake in Trump Media, raising further alarm about Trump essentially paying himself for ads on the social media company he owns.A Thursday merger filing first reported on by Wendy Seigelman at NewsTRACS reveals that Trump Media, or TMTG, reported the expected $350,000 payment directly from Freedom 250.“TMTG performed advertising services to Freedom 250 LLC, an entity created by, and administered by the National Park Foundation, the official charity of the National Park Service. Meredith O’Rourke, a member of TMTG’s Board of Directors, also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Parks Foundation,” the filing reads. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2026, TMTG earned revenue of $175.0 related to the advertisement of Freedom 250 events. As of September 30, 2026, TMTG had $175.0 of outstanding receivables from Freedom 250 LLC.”Freedom 250 relies mostly on taxpayer money, as National Park Foundation CEO Jeff Reinbold told the House Natural Resources Committee in February. “The majority of Freedom 250’s operating funds come from federal funds appropriated by Congress specifically for the 250th anniversary commemorations,” he said.It appears that Trump went out of his way to create lackluster, cheap, and gaudy events, all to funnel more money into his own pockets. It is yet another example of just how committed to corruption this administration is, wringing out every penny they can get from their time in power.The U.S. oil industry has made more than $130 billion in profit during the Iran war—while normal Americans continue to pay exorbitant prices at the gas pump.The New York Times reported that the country’s 50 largest oil and gas companies raked in a massive profit from April to September. The $130 billion profit margin eclipses the $47 billion that these companies made during the same six-month period last year. The last comparable economic windfall was after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the oil and gas industry made slightly higher profits.American households have spent $1,100 on fuel alone since the war began. That’s an extra $147 billion all together, according to Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab.Once again, it is massive corporations that stand to gain the most from violence and conflict. President Trump said it himself a few days ago. “And while oil prices are temporarily high … the United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.... Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars ‘cause of what’s happened in the Middle East … trillions of dollars,” he told a rally crowd in Georgia on Saturday. “My people said, ‘Please don’t mention that sir, because people are paying a little higher’ ... I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it: We’re making a freaking fortune.’”When the president says “we,” he means Exxon, Chevron, and Valero. Not you. TRUMP on HIGH GAS PRICES: We’re making money like we’ve never made before. They’ll say: President Trump is bragging about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. I don’t give a damn. We’re making a freaking fortune. https://t.co/KZ2pYsTPyR— Acyn (@Acyn) October 25, 2026 President Donald Trump’s allies won’t stop canceling public appearances, sending an ominous message to voters ahead of the midterm elections. After Trump canceled—and then rescheduled—two rallies in Kansas and Iowa over the weekend, it appears that the rest of the president’s team is still tapped out. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton all canceled upcoming appearances. Vance canceled a Friday afternoon appearance in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he was expected to make an announcement related to his war on fraud. It wasn’t immediately clear what the announcement was regarding, but Vance previously referred Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation based on the vice president’s wild accusations that they allowed sweeping social services fraud.Other federal officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, were still scheduled to appear in St. Cloud on Friday. Oz, the daytime television host Trump picked to run the CMS, has previously spread faulty claims of health care fraud in other blue states.Rubio, who will chair the G20 meeting in Atlanta this weekend, canceled plans for a group photo with foreign ministers after several European diplomats refused to pose with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov. And Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate in Texas, also canceled a campaign rally scheduled for Sunday in El Paso. The Texas attorney general held a sparsely attended campaign event in Abilene on Thursday. The latest polls show Democratic candidate James Talarico with a slight edge over Paxton. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Atlanta Friday for a G20 foreign minister’s meeting in Atlanta, and it’s drawing backlash from U.S. lawmakers and allies alike.Lavrov is the highest profile Russian official to visit the U.S since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His arrival upset other assembled diplomats, who didn’t want anything to do with him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was forced to scrap the traditional photo with all of the foreign ministers after European leaders refused to stand next to Lavrov and threatened to walk out. Usually, the summit begins with the photograph.At home, Republicans too are outraged by the decision to invite Lavrov. Representative Don Bacon condemned the visit on X, saying, “Lavrov should not be allowed in the country.“As long as Putin is waging war against Ukraine and bombing cities, Russian leaders should not be welcomed in any of these forums. They lead a pariah state,” Bacon posted on Wednesday.Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also condemned the visit in a joint letter last month. The group was made up of Republicans Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Roger Wicker, Jerry Moran, Thom Tillis, John Curtis, and Alan Armstrong, in addition to Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse, Michael Bennet, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Tim Kaine, and Ruben Gallego.“President Putin bears sole responsibility for launching Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Allowing him to participate in a G20 Summit in the United States raises serious concerns about legitimizing and normalizing a government that continues to attack Ukrainian civilian targets every day,” the senators wrote.Meanwhile, another key player in the G20 is missing. South Africa, which is part of the international forum, did not attend amid various disputes with the Trump administration, and representatives from the country said their absence wasn’t by choice.“We have consistently maintained that our nonparticipation is not voluntary,” Phindile Kunene, spokesperson for South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola, told the Associated Press.It’s pretty clear that the Trump administration is trying to force other countries to deal with Russia even as Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to make any concessions in the war with Ukraine. Excluding South Africa, which is actually a founding member of the G20, this also suggests that the White House is ignoring international concerns.