Questions over whether Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) had been excluded from a Kennedy Center board meeting emerged after she accused President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center’s board of leaving her out, though court filings later indicated the invitation had been sent and was found in her personal email spam folder.
CNN reporter Betsy Klein posted about the development on X, writing: “In today’s edition of Washington is Veep: A Democratic congresswoman made a legal complaint against President Donald Trump for, in part, excluding her from an upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting. The invitation, it turned out, was in her spam folder. Aide filed an update today.”
Klein also shared a screenshot from a court filing describing how the email was ultimately located. The filing states: “On March 6, 2026, after learning that Defendant’s counsel represented to the Court that the Center sent the notice to Congresswoman Beatty’s personal email address, I asked Congresswoman Beatty to search her personal email. She was able to locate the notice in the spam folder of her personal email address.”
Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, responded in a quote tweet: “Did the dog also eat her homework?”
The issue surfaced as Beatty pursues legal action related to governance of the Kennedy Center. According to reporting from The Hill, the Ohio Democrat’s attorneys initially stated in court filings that she had not been invited to a March 16 meeting where a proposed renovation of the center is expected to be discussed.
The Justice Department noted the invitation had been sent, and Beatty’s legal team later confirmed it had been delivered but landed in the spam folder of her personal email account. Her lawyers wrote in a filing that the congresswoman “appreciates Defendants’ confirmation that she can attend the meeting at the White House.”
Beatty told reporters invitations to Kennedy Center board meetings typically go to her scheduler and chief of staff rather than her personal email. She explained her chief of staff had stopped receiving the emails months earlier and her scheduler did not receive the March 16 invitation. After the hearing, her attorney Norm Eisen revealed the message had been caught by a spam filter, speaking to reporters, “I doubt there’s a single person here who hasn’t had an email vanished somewhere in a spam filter. That’s what happened here.”
The dispute arose during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper over Beatty’s request for a temporary restraining order tied to a Kennedy Center board meeting. Beatty, an ex officio trustee, argues she should be allowed to participate and vote on plans involving the institution.
In court filings, Justice Department lawyer William Jankowski wrote that Beatty “will not be permitted to vote” because board procedures distinguish ex officio trustees from governing trustees.
Cooper said he would take the motion under advisement and aim to rule quickly, calling the proposed overhaul of the performing arts venue “a pretty big deal” for what he described as the nation’s premier performing arts center.
In December 2025, the Democratic lawmaker sued President Trump and members of the center’s board after the institution was renamed to include Trump’s name. Beatty has contended that Congress alone has the authority to change the institution’s name and maintained she had been muted during the board call when the decision was made.
In February 2025, Beatty deleted a social media post claiming Trayvon Martin had been killed in an act of police brutality and attributing the death to racially motivated violence. Martin was fatally shot in 2012 by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman during a physical altercation in Sanford, Florida.
In July, Beatty asserted during a CBS News interview that economic indicators cited by the Trump administration were “just numbers,” stating, “what they’re reporting are just numbers and we don’t know how much accuracy [there] is,” and adding, “I think they make up numbers. I have no trust in this president or the administration.”
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