Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asked in a court filing late Sunday to resume construction on the White House ballroom, arguing that the nearby shooting over the weekend underscores the need for security the ballroom will provide.
“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, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility,” Blanche said in the court filing.
Blanche wrote that without the ballroom, “the President cannot safely conduct the business of the United States.”
A gunman was killed after allegedly opening fire on a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint near the White House Saturday evening, officials said. Secret Service officers returned fire, hitting the suspect, who later died at a hospital. A bystander was also wounded.
A Washington, D.C. district court judge last month temporarily halted construction of the 9,000-square foot ballroom until the administration obtains congressional approval. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled the $1 billion for the ballroom’s security could not be included as part of a reconciliation bill and Congress left for recess last week without agreement on the measure.
An appellate court has allowed construction to continue until at least early June when a panel of judges will hear the case.
In the latest filing, Blanche argues that the ballroom is “being constructed for the physical safety and security of all Presidents, their families, staff, Foreign Dignitaries, and guests.” He calls it a “SAFE HAVEN,” unlike the current tented structures that are used for state dinners.
The filing lists several security features, including “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, and much more. Together, the entire Facility, which includes bomb shelters, a state of the art hospital and medical facilities, Top Secret military installations, structures, and equipment, protective partitioning, and other features, is a single integrated, complex unit that is vital for the National Security of the United States.”
The ballroom’s roof will include a drone port, sniper stations and “will be hermetically sealed to prevent malign forces from contaminating the circulating air.”
Blanche made a similar argument last month after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Federal Judge Richard Leon has expressed reservations about the project’s $400 million private financing arrangement and the lack of congressional input.
President Trump last week told reporters that the ballroom is being privately financed and the funds included in the reconciliation were for security. He said if Congress wouldn’t sign off on the funding, the White House “won’t be a very secure place.”