'Active falling hazard': Trump team reveals new Kennedy Center warning
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump's legal team cited a new engineering warning in the Kennedy Center court fight, arguing deteriorating exterior panels posed an “active falling hazard” to people inside.
The Justice Department said keeping the building fully open could put the public, employees, and artists at risk, according to the filing.
The warning appeared in a court filing on Thursday, September 17, as the administration fought an emergency hearing sought by Rep Joyce Beatty.
Kennedy Center lawyers cite deteriorating concrete panels
The administration's lawyers said an assessment by engineering firm Walter P Moore found “more advanced deterioration in the overhead soffit panels than recently documented.”
The filing described the panels as an active falling hazard.
The panels are concrete slabs that ring the building's entire exterior, according to the filing.
The administration said the concern was part of the reason the center was temporarily closed for seven days.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center's executive director and chief operating officer, ordered the closure on Wednesday morning because of what the filing described as “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration at the Center.”
“For a long time now, we have seen warnings about the life-safety risks presented by the building's deteriorating infrastructure,” Floca wrote to staff Wednesday afternoon.
He also cited a recent incident in which a five-by-four-foot piece of ceiling plaster, about an inch thick, broke loose September 4 after severe storms.
No one was hurt, Floca wrote, but he said the center could not risk another serious safety incident.
Justice Department defends closure in court
The administration argued the safety concerns justified the shutdown and disputed the idea that the closure violated a court order.
“[T]he only emergency is the risk to the public and the Center's employees and artists if it remained fully open without further safety assessment,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
They also argued that “No part of the Court's preliminary injunction order forbids a temporary closure like this one.”
The filing came after Beatty, a Democratic representative from Ohio who sits on the center's board, sought an emergency hearing Wednesday.
Her motion called the shutdown “unexplained and unlawful” and argued that the administration could be trying to prevent public access before the court could rule.
“It is possible Defendants intend to undertake immediate steps in order to make public access practically impossible for the foreseeable future,” Beatty's lawyers wrote.
Trump's name fight remains before the court
The legal fight centers on Trump's effort to put his name on the Kennedy Center.
The closure came a day after US District Judge Christopher Cooper barred the board from putting Trump's name on the building or its grounds.
Trump then announced the closure on Truth Social, saying the renovation and reconstruction could not begin unless the DC Circuit ruled in favor of the board's approved name.
The administration's next court move is also set out in the filing.
Justice Department lawyers said they would ask Cooper to lift his injunction by Friday, while Floca would testify in person if the judge holds a hearing.
The response was filed minutes before a court-imposed deadline Thursday, as the administration sought to defend the closure in the ongoing legal dispute.
