The Justice Department is invoking the shooting outside the White House over the weekend as to why redevelopment of the East Wing, including construction of a planned ballroom, should go forward uninterrupted.“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,” the filing reads.
The White House complex was locked down after an exchange of gunfire between the Secret Service and the suspect, who officials said had mental health problems and a previous incident with the Secret Service last year. The suspect was killed in the gunfight, and a bystander was injured.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a nominee of former President George W. Bush, issued an injunction in March halting construction of the ballroom. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has temporarily paused the injunction while it considers the DOJ’s appeal.
The DOJ’s filing on Sunday asking Leon to lift his injunction details the security elements which are a part of the planned ballroom, including “drone deterrence, vantage points for rooftop snipers, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, impenetrable steel, missile resistant columns, Military grade venting, and other protections.”
