The Kennedy Center Is Closed. So Are the Records.

The Kennedy Center’s main building is closed, and the administration is asserting presidential privilege over communications about running it. Apparently the most sensitive performance in Washington is the explanation of who decided to stop the performances.

On October 25, Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and Kennedy Center trustee, asked a federal judge to compel withheld records. Her filing describes roughly 180 texts between executive director Matt Floca and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The defendants’ privilege log also lists 19 texts between Floca and presidential adviser Natalie Harp, including 11 on September 15, the day of the board’s third closure vote. That is quite a supporting cast for a facilities decision.

The log arrived October 23, the extended discovery deadline, and covers nine categories of records. Its descriptions include operations, renovations, board business and financial outlook. Beatty’s lawyers argue the communications could show whether the board exercised independent judgment or ratified a predetermined result. That remains their contention, not a judicial finding about these messages. The contents are withheld; nobody gets to fill in the blanks with a preferred scandal.

The government’s defense deserves more than a sarcastic translation. In an October 14 declaration, White House lawyer Joshua Hoyt formally invoked the privilege at Trump’s direction. His rationale: the president appoints trustees and needs confidential advice to assess their management. Those presidential responsibilities can overlap with his chairmanship. Government lawyers also argue Beatty has extensive evidence already and has not shown the particular need required to overcome the privilege. Some logged material carries separate attorney-client or work-product claims.

So the dispute is not whether presidents may ever receive confidential advice. It is whether this institution’s management communications qualify, and whether Beatty’s need for them prevails. The administration wants the court to accept the board’s renovation decision as adequately supported while keeping these presidential communications outside the evidence Beatty can test. The chairman has a very useful second job whenever somebody asks to see his homework.

There is also an important distinction behind the locked doors. Floca temporarily closed the main building on September 16 for stated safety reasons. The REACH remained open. Judge Christopher Cooper’s October 9 order distinguished that emergency closure from the proposed two-year renovation shutdown, which remained blocked by an earlier injunction. The board says new expert materials support its revised decision. A dangerous ceiling can require repairs without automatically settling who lawfully decided on two years without the main building.

The public docket reviewed, updated October 26, shows Beatty’s request, not an order compelling these messages. Privilege is not proof of a crime. Nor is invoking it a substitute for establishing that the underlying decision was sound. Audiences have lost access to the main building while the court sorts out its future. Washington can apparently sustain a long-running production about closing a performing arts center. The public just cannot see the script.