A federal judge said on Saturday that she intends to appoint a former top prosecutor from Donald Trump's first term to examine whether lawyers and officials misled her about plans for a historic public golf course in Washington.

Judge Ana Reyes, who sits in the District of Columbia, wants Jessie Liu to review whether staff at the interior department and the National Park Service, and attorneys at the Justice Department, broke ethics rules or deceived the court. Liu previously served as the city's chief federal prosecutor.

The civil case began in February, when a local preservation group and two golfers sued over the administration's plan to close the East Potomac golf course and park on 15 November and rebuild it as what officials have called a world class, championship level course able to host major events. The project is one of several construction schemes the president has pursued around the capital.

Last month Reyes issued an injunction that temporarily bars the government from cutting or damaging any more trees and requires ten days' written notice before any irreversible change to the course's layout while the lawsuit continues. She now wants to know whether officials told the truth about the scale of the renovation and about the felling of hundreds of trees earlier in October.

Reyes announced a formal inquiry into the government's conduct at a hearing on 30 October. Earlier in the case she had trusted government lawyers and refused several requests from the plaintiffs to intervene. Each side has until Friday, when the next hearing is due, to comment in writing on her plan to name Liu.

As the city's then chief prosecutor, Liu handled some matters referred by the special counsel who investigated links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. Trump later nominated her as associate attorney general, the third ranking post at the Justice Department, but she withdrew after opposition in the Senate over her past membership of a lawyers' group that had supported abortion rights.

A law professor at Georgetown said a judge opening such an inquiry can be a step toward holding someone in contempt of court, and reflected how hard it had been to establish who ordered the tree cutting after assurances given by government lawyers.