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A new filing from the Department of Justice this week described a recent shooting incident near the White House as a “second attempted assassination on the President within a single month,” and urged a federal judge to nix an injunction holding up construction on the White House Ballroom.
“Indeed, the longer this frivolous litigation persists, the more our National Security will be jeopardized as the Government continues to be forced to justify – through the divulgence of such security installations, layout, and other specifications of construction – the necessity for a secure addition to the White House,” the filing, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, argued.
This argument comes after an attempted shooting unfolded on Saturday night. According to the U.S. Secret Service, a suspect pulled a weapon from a bag and began firing in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. He exchanged fire with Secret Service agents and was fatally wounded.
President Trump was in the White House at the time but was not impacted, the agency said.
The suspect was later identified as Nasire Best, 21. According to The New York Times, Best was known to law enforcement and had previously attempted to approach the White House on more than one occasion.
Last month, following a harrowing shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, AG Blanche utilized the situation to make a similar argument.
“The attack confirms that this Court’s injunction is intolerable and unsustainable as a matter of equity and Law,” the filing read at the time, as reported by RSBN.
The White House Ballroom construction has turned out to be a much bigger project than originally thought. The U.S. military is now heavily involved in wanting to build deep facilities beneath the ballroom, according to President Trump. He told reporters last week that the depth below the ground was “six stories.”
President Trump has said that the White House Ballroom will be a privately funded project. The security measures, however, appear to be a separate thing altogether. As reported by RSBN, the U.S. Senate parliamentarian recently nixed a $1 billion proposal that would have provided massive security additions to the White House complex.
Monday’s DOJ filing argued that the building of the White House Ballroom would provide a “SAFE HAVEN” from attacks, and would additionally provide a protected space for future events, state visits, and presidential inaugurations.
The filing additionally revealed some of the “state of the art security features” being built into the facility: drone-proof roofing, missile-resistant and drone-proof columns, heavy steel, bullet, ballistic, and blast-proof glass, and military-grade venting for air conditioning and heating.
“Without this National Security Facility, such events are otherwise relegated to the vulnerable tents on the South Lawn, exposed to various threats, as again shown by last night’s shooting, which would have been easily in range to reach a tent…on the White House South Lawn, and cause death and destruction,” it noted.
