A lawyer representing the Department of Justice said at a hearing over the building of a White House ballroom that the Trump administration could hypothetically “bulldoze” the Statue of Liberty.
During the hearing before a federal appeals court panel on Friday, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth said “yes” when Judge Patricia Millett asked if “no court could stop the building of this [ballroom]?”
Roth claimed the National Trust for Historic Preservation lacked standing to bring a lawsuit challenging the ballroom because the former East Wing has been demolished and construction is already underway.
Millett, in response, criticized what she said is the administration’s “move fast and break things” approach.
“If you move fast enough, nobody has standing to challenge it?” she asked.
“I do think that that is correct,” Roth said. “The injury, it becomes non-redressable.”
Millett then asked: “If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty — the people whose ancestors that was the first thing they saw coming to this country, but the government moved too fast — nothing can be done?”
Roth responded: “I think that’s right, yes.”
ABC News reported that Roth’s answer sparked “audible gasps” in the courtroom.
