'Shocking' Trump DOJ moves during Kennedy Center hearing flagged by lawyer

A lawyer involved in the hearings over President Donald Trump's effort to rename the Kennedy Center flagged a shocking moment by the Justice Department.

During a Thursday appearance on CNN, Nathaniel Zelinsky said it was "shocking" that DOJ lawyers insisted on sticking to a September deadline that they set themselves. Zelinsky is part of the legal counsel for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board who is challenging the renaming.

The DOJ has said that it will refrain from putting Trump's name back on the Kennedy Center until September 8, but has been unclear about why. Zelinsky noted that Judge Christopher Cooper "was clear that he might issue a temporary restraining order to buy himself a little more time" to consider the case, but the DOJ stuck to its deadline, which is about two weeks away.

"What's shocking here is that the Department of Justice has said that they're going to stick by this artificial September deadline to put the name back on the Kennedy Center," Zelinsky said. "There's no reason to. September 8 is a made-up date."

The DOJ insisted that it has to put Trump's name back on the Kennedy Center by then, but the judge is asking the department, "Please, can you wait a little bit?" Zelinsky recounted. "And they said, 'No.'"

Zelinsky said he expects Cooper to respond by issuing an emergency order to force the DOJ to wait and give himself a little more time. Zelinsky also responded to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose wife is a trustee of the board, who said on Thursday that Trump needs to be "enticed" to fund renovations to the center.

"That's not what the law is," Zelinsky said. "The law is very clear. This is a memorial to John F. Kennedy. You can't sell a piece off. It can't be the Tesla Plaza. It can't be the Koch Memorial. It's the Kennedy Center, and so it doesn't matter if that's what the president wants to do."