By Katharine Jackson and Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Lawyers working to keep the Kennedy Center open and Donald Trump’s name off its facade submitted new evidence on Thursday, citing the U.S. president’s comments and a photo referring to the performing arts center’s demolition.
In a court filing, lawyers for the plaintiff, U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, notified the court of comments the president made on Wednesday evening.
“I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina.
The lawyers also cited a photo circulating on social media that depicted the president on board Air Force One looking at a poster they said appeared to be titled “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
The photo has not been independently verified by Reuters.
REPRESENTATIVE SEEKS HEARING
Beatty has asked Washington-based U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to hold an emergency hearing on the lawsuit after the Kennedy Center’s board, including Trump and his hand-picked appointees, voted this week to close the center for up to two years for a $257 million renovation project.
She said the Kennedy Center, which was established by Congress and opened in 1971 in Washington, D.C., as a memorial to former President John F. Kennedy, is no longer accessible to the public during normal operating hours. New barriers were visible outside the building on Wednesday.
Cooper ordered the board to explain by Thursday whether the plan violates an earlier order he issued limiting its ability to shut its doors. The board said on Thursday morning that it was not in violation of the order, and that a Kennedy Center official had closed the center on Wednesday for seven days of emergency repairs.
The Trump administration said it would ask the judge by Friday to dissolve the prior order to allow for what the government called “closure necessary to complete the restoration and renovations.”
Cooper’s order in May also directed the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the building’s facade, saying only Congress can change the name.
Cooper, in a new ruling on Tuesday, rejected the center’s latest effort to put Trump’s name on the building to reflect his role in the planned renovation.
The administration has appealed, and Trump said on social media the Kennedy Center “is destined to doom” if it is not permitted to close for repairs.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Mike Scarcella; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Andrea Ricci, Rod Nickel)
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