Bridget Kennedy Bailey, a lawyer for Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, filed a sworn affidavit describing a disturbing scene at the Kennedy Center. Beatty sits ex officio on the center’s board, and Kennedy Bailey said she tried to visit the building twice.

During her first attempt, Kennedy Bailey was denied entry because the center was supposedly closed. A Security Operations Specialist told her that he did not know how long the closure would last.

Kennedy Bailey returned one hour later, at 11:47 a.m. EDT, and found that the scene had changed. “When I got out of the car, I saw that black metal gates had been placed in front of the building since I left.”

“The gates appeared to be around forty feet away from the building itself,” she continued. “The gates lined up with the fountains on the east side of the building.”

Similar gates appeared on other sides of the Kennedy Center, according to her account. Kennedy Bailey also saw forklifts bringing additional gates toward the front of the building while people set up cones.

What happened next raised the stakes considerably. “Afterward, I saw a forklift carrying what appeared to be a more permanent form of fencing drive over to the north side of the building. I saw the forklift run into and hit the pillars on the building several times.”

The affidavit did not describe a single brush with the building. It said the forklift struck the pillars several times while fencing was being brought into place around one of the country’s major cultural institutions.

A federal judge quickly demanded answers from President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center’s board. Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump and the board to respond by Thursday morning to an emergency motion filed after forklifts were seen striking the building.

Cooper signed the order Wednesday, less than two hours after Beatty filed the motion, according to the court docket. Trump and the other defendants were ordered to answer by 10 a.m. Thursday, after which the court could schedule a prompt hearing if necessary.

Beatty’s counsel, Norm Eisen, said closing the venue without Cooper’s approval “appears to directly violate his order.” His statement portrayed the closure as a direct challenge to the authority of the court.

“This is an assault on the rule of law,” Eisen said in a statement shared with The Independent. “The board cannot simply ignore Judge Cooper’s rulings whenever it suits them. In this country, no one — including the president — is above the law.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin also condemned the closure and its consequences for the Kennedy Center. “Closing the Kennedy Center is an affront to President Kennedy’s memory, an attack on Congressional power and an outrageous assault on the livelihoods of the artists and workers who operate and perform in our cultural center,” Raskin said Wednesday.

“We’re demanding it remain open and free from the President’s graffiti, vandalism and desecration,” Raskin added. Maria Shriver, President John F. Kennedy’s niece, was also among those speaking out.

The turmoil comes as Trump faces several political setbacks described by CNN. The Supreme Court blocked his plan to restrict mail voting before the midterms, prompting Trump to attack his first term appointees on the court as “a shell” of their former selves.

The House also voted that Trump could not continue his “war” with Iran without congressional approval. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates after Trump selected a new chairman whom he expected would lower them, while Canada announced closer alignment with the European Union.

CNN described the Kennedy Center confrontation as particularly damaging because of what it revealed about Trump’s conduct. The network reported that a lower court again frustrated his attempt to renovate the center and that he now plans to shut it down.

The Kennedy Center now sits behind newly installed gates while a federal judge waits for answers. The affidavit’s account of forklifts repeatedly striking the building has transformed Trump’s latest institutional power grab into an urgent courtroom fight over the center’s future.