Legal expert Ryan Goodman reacted to reporting that suggested the Trump administration lied to the Supreme Court about the White House ballroom.
On Friday, the Washington Post published an investigation into the claim by the Solicitor General that the White House ballroom is 65% complete. The Solicitor General made the claim to the Supreme Court to argue that the project was too far along to shut down.
Goodman, a former special counsel for the Department of Defense and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, reacted to the possibility that the White House was lying to the Supreme Court.
"It's a whopper," Goodman said during a Friday appearance on CNN. "Even though multiple federal courts across the country, lower federal courts, have found that the Department of Justice has given them misinformation, that has not happened at the Supreme Court and certainly not by the Solicitor General."
The Solicitor General "has a relationship of trust" with the Supreme Court, Goodman explained. In the past, the Solicitor General would correct themselves if they made a factual error while presenting to the Supreme Court, he added.
"They'll send a letter to the court saying, 'Look, I made a mistake. Here's the real record,'" Goodman said. "So if this sticks the way it's looking, it would be very bad for the government."
The reporting and the revelation that the Solicitor General may have misrepresented the project's status could influence the Supreme Court's decision over whether to stop the construction of President Donald Trump's ballroom. The Supreme Court has already issued a temporary stay to let the construction continue while it deliberates, but it has yet to make a final decision on whether the project can be completed.
"This is the argument. The argument by the Solicitor General was, 'It's 65 percent complete,' and in his brief, he mentions that twice," Goodman said. "If the factual premise is gone, it's a real problem."