A federal judge has ordered the full release of the PowerPoint presentation that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' board relied on when deciding to close the institution's main building for a sweeping renovation. District Judge Christopher R.
Cooper, is the latest setback for the Trump administration in Representative Joyce Beatty's long-running legal fight over control of the Kennedy Center, its proposed two-year closure and President Donald Trump's efforts to attach his name to the iconic facility. Cooper ordered the Delta Construction Group PowerPoint unsealed in full and he also ruled that the separate 163-page JLL construction plan should ultimately be made public, although the administration will have one week to propose narrowly tailored redactions for portions it says create legitimate security concerns. The documents were presented to the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees at an August 13 meeting where the board voted to close the main building for renovations.
The unsealing comes amid a broader battle over Trump's attempts to add his name to the Kennedy Center. Democrats have accused Trump of pushing to close the institution and threatening its future, including demolition, as part of his effort to have his name added to the building. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has argued that the Kennedy Center is in "terrible trouble" and needs major construction work immediately.
"The crisis is so acute that, without the Trump Administration, its people, and President Trump, the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially," the administration argued in legal fillings. Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment. The presentation was one of two documents the government submitted under seal after the August board meeting.
The other was the much longer JLL Plan. Beatty had argued that the public should be able to see both because they were used to justify a decision involving a major public institution, public money and the closure of a landmark federal cultural facility. She had accused the Trump administration of erecting a "stone wall of executive privilege" to withhold the documents and other communications involving Trump and Kennedy Center officials.
In a motion to unseal the documents, Beatty's lawyers characterized the Delta presentation as a five-slide deck that contained the key analysis presented to the board about the consequences of closing the building. Beatty's lawyers argued that the much more detailed JLL Plan failed to contain any cost-benefit analysis of closure. Meanwhile, the Delta Consulting Group's five-slide presentation contained just two slides of substantive analysis, which Beatty's lawyers said were "riddled with internal inconsistencies." The presentation also failed to "identify even a single benefit to remaining partially open while renovating." "That was the sole assessment of whether to close the Kennedy Center that was presented to the Board," the lawyers stated.
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