Trump administration cites May 23 shootout to make case for White House ballroom

Washington, May 26 (PTI): The US administration has cited the weekend shootout near the White House to urge a federal judge to drop the case against a ballroom being built on the premises of the presidential residence.

In a late Sunday court filing, the US Department of Justice described the Saturday shootout near the White House as yet another attempt on the life of President Donald Trump, his family and staff.

On Saturday night, May 23, a shooter once again sought to murder the President, his family, and his staff at the historic White House complex, the court filing signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said.

It said this second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the ballroom, knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for national security.

He said the ballroom is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility.

Saturday’s attack, in which the US Secret Service killed the shooter, was the second such incident after the April 25 shootout at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner that was attended by Trump, Vice President J D Vance and top Cabinet members.

In the court filing, Woodward called the lawsuit against the ballroom “a complete embarrassment to our country”.

The filing also provided new details of the project’s planned security features.

The state of the art security features of the ballroom include “a heavy steel, drone-proof roof, missile resistant and drone-proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast-proof glass, military grade venting for air conditioning and heating”.

The filing said the ballroom’s roof will include a “drone port and key location for rooftop snipers who will protect the White House and the entire Washington, DC area, as a whole”.

“Unlike virtually every similar structure in America, the ballroom’s rooftop will include no air conditioning, venting, or similar facilities — it will be hermetically sealed to prevent malign forces from contaminating the circulating air, thereby threatening the lives of those inside,” the filing added.

While noting how rare it is for the government to publicly disclose planned security features of the White House complex, the Department of Justice said it had been “forced” to reveal several such details “to stave off the court’s dangerous injunction”.

The submission to district court Judge Richard Leon came as both the Department of Justice and the National Trust for Historic Preservation prepared for oral arguments before an appeals court panel on June 5.

Three judges of the DC Circuit court will weigh Leon’s late March injunction against the ballroom’s above-ground construction. That order has been temporarily stayed by the appeals judges, a move that has allowed work to continue. PTI SKU PRK

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