Top DOJ Brass Rally Behind Trump Ballroom, Citing Gala Shooting
President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the planned White House Ballroom extension in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Oct. 22.
Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/BloombergSenior US Justice Department officials are citing an alleged assassination attempt at a gala attended by President Donald Trump over the weekend in a renewed effort to end a legal challenge to the construction of a new White House ballroom.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the department’s third-ranking official, took the unusual step of formally joining the litigation on Monday night and filed a request urging the judge to take steps to dismiss the case. Woodward wrote that the security incident at a hotel during the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association proved why a larger, secure event space at the White House is needed.