Whistleblowers accuse Kennedy Center officials of halting planned repairs later used to justify closure

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

Whistleblowers are alleging that Kennedy Center officials halted plans earlier this year to repair leaks in the building, which the Trump administration has highlighted as its reason to close the storied arts institution.

In a letter to Congress Thursday, obtained by CNN, a lawyer representing the anonymous whistleblowers wrote that the Kennedy Center’s director Matt Floca has known about leak issues “for years” and stopped plans for repairs in April, despite receiving $9.3 million dollars in congressional funding for roofing replacement last year.

Repairs “were not treated as priorities nor as acute risks to public safety,” attorney David Seide said in the letter to congressional committees that oversee the arts center. The whistleblowers claimed that Floca requested and received funding for repairs but “stopped the remediation process from moving forward.”

The whistleblowers said Floca received the funds through Trump’s hallmark One Big Beautiful Bill Act but he has delayed addressing the repairs since the bill’s passage last year.

Members of Kennedy Center leadership and President Donald Trump have repeatedly pointed to a September 4 incident where a section of ceiling plaster fell in the Grand Foyer as justification for needing to close their doors. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick shared security video of the piece of ceiling falling, later shared by Trump, as further evidence that the center has “completely unsafe conditions” and declared “people cannot be allowed to go into this building any longer.”

The Kennedy Center in a statement to CNN on Friday pushed back on the whistleblowers’ claims, saying, “The safety of our patrons, artists, and staff comes first.”

“The Kennedy Center has known for years that the roof overhang leaked. What we did not know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside it,” Floca said in the statement, adding there “was a change in the approach to procuring and delivering the work, not a determination that the work was unnecessary.”

The New York Times was first to report on the whistleblowers’ letter.

The whistleblowers’ claims are the latest development amid a lawsuit brought by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the board, to block Trump’s name from being added to the center.

Lawyers for the arts venue have argued that if the current building cannot undergo more extensive renovations, the center “ will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down.”

The center said earlier this week in a court filing it will temporarily close until September 30 to assess safety risks.

Trump, who in his second term has installed himself as chairman of the center’s board and overseen sweeping changes to its leadership and programming, announced earlier this year that the center would close for approximately two years for renovations.

It was slated to close on July 4, but a federal judge temporarily blocked the move.

The Trump administration and the Kennedy Center board have continued to push back in the ongoing legal challenge. Lawyers for the center threatened to demolish the building if renovations aren’t allowed.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

举报人声称，肯尼迪中心官员今年早些时候停止了修复大楼漏水问题的计划，而特朗普政府则以此为由关闭了这家历史悠久的艺术机构。

CNN获得的一封致国会的信中，代表匿名举报人的律师写道，肯尼迪中心主任马特·弗洛卡“多年来”一直知道漏水问题，并在4月份停止了维修计划，尽管去年国会拨款930万美元用于更换屋顶。

律师大卫·塞德在致国会各委员会（负责监督该艺术中心）的信中表示，维修工作“既没有被列为优先事项，也没有被视为对公共安全的重大风险”。举报人声称，弗洛卡曾申请并获得了维修资金，但“却阻止了修复工作的进行”。

举报人称，弗洛卡通过特朗普标志性的《一个美好的大法案》获得了资金，但自该法案去年通过以来，他一直拖延着进行维修工作。

肯尼迪中心领导层和唐纳德·特朗普总统多次援引9月4日大厅天花板石膏脱落事件作为关闭中心的理由。商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克分享了天花板脱落的监控录像，特朗普随后也分享了这段录像，以此作为中心“完全不安全”的进一步证据，并宣称“人们不能再被允许进入这座大楼”。

肯尼迪中心周五向 CNN 发表声明，反驳了举报人的说法，称“我们的赞助人、艺术家和员工的安全是第一位的”。

弗洛卡在声明中表示：“肯尼迪中心多年来一直知道屋顶悬挑部分漏水。直到今年夏天，我们才知道损坏已经蔓延到内部的程度。”他还补充说，“我们改变了采购和交付工程的方式，而不是认为这项工程没有必要。”

《纽约时报》率先报道了举报人的信件内容。

举报人的说法是民主党众议员乔伊斯·比蒂（Joyce Beatty）提起诉讼的最新进展。比蒂是该中心董事会的当然成员，她提起诉讼是为了阻止将特朗普的名字添加到该中心。

艺术场馆的律师辩称，如果目前的建筑不能进行更广泛的翻新，该中心“将进一步恶化成一个不安全、破败的建筑，最终将被拆除”。

该中心本周早些时候在一份法庭文件中表示，将暂时关闭至9月30日，以评估安全风险。

特朗普在其第二个任期内担任该中心董事会主席，并监督了该中心领导层和项目规划的全面改革。今年早些时候，他宣布该中心将关闭约两年进行翻修。

原定于7月4日关闭，但一名联邦法官暂时阻止了这一举措。

特朗普政府和肯尼迪中心董事会持续反击这场法律挑战。中心律师威胁称，如果翻修工程不被允许，他们将拆除这座建筑。