2026年9月26日 美国东部时间凌晨12:10 / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：阿丽娜·法亚兹、桑伦·瑟法蒂
举报人指控肯尼迪艺术中心官员今年早些时候叫停了建筑漏水维修计划，而特朗普政府正是以此为由关闭这家知名艺术机构。
在CNN获取到的一封周四提交给国会的信件中，代表匿名举报人的律师戴维·赛德写道，肯尼迪艺术中心主任马特·弗洛卡“多年来”一直知晓漏水问题，并于今年4月叫停了维修计划，尽管该中心去年已获得930万美元国会拨款用于屋顶更换工程。
“这些维修工作既未被视为优先事项，也未被视作危及公共安全的紧迫风险，”赛德在致负责监管该艺术中心的国会委员会的信中说道。举报人声称，弗洛卡曾申请并获批维修资金，但“阻止了修复程序推进”。
举报人表示，弗洛卡通过特朗普标志性的《一项宏伟美丽法案》获得了相关资金，但自去年该法案通过以来，他一直推迟处理维修事宜。
肯尼迪艺术中心管理层成员和唐纳德·特朗普总统曾多次以9月4日的一起事件为由，证明需要关闭场馆：当天大礼堂内一块天花板石膏板脱落。商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克公开了这段天花板坠落的监控视频，特朗普随后也转发了该视频，以此作为该中心“完全不安全”的进一步证据，并宣称“绝不允许民众再进入这座建筑”。
肯尼迪艺术中心周五在给CNN的一份声明中驳斥了举报人的说法，称“我们的观众、艺术家和工作人员的安全是重中之重”。
弗洛卡在声明中表示：“肯尼迪艺术中心多年来一直知道屋顶悬挑结构存在漏水问题。直到今年夏天，我们才了解到内部损坏的严重程度。”他补充道，“只是在采购和实施工程的方式上做出了调整，并非认定这项工作没有必要。”
《纽约时报》率先报道了这封举报信。
举报人的指控是民主党众议员乔伊斯·比蒂提起的诉讼的最新进展。比蒂是该中心董事会的当然成员，她提起诉讼旨在阻止特朗普的名字被添加到艺术中心名称中。
该艺术场馆的律师辩称，如果当前建筑无法进行更广泛的翻新，该中心“将进一步恶化成不安全、破败的建筑，最终必须被拆除”。
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。
在第二任期内，特朗普自封为肯尼迪艺术中心董事会主席，并对该中心的管理层和节目安排进行了全面改革。他今年早些时候宣布，该中心将关闭约两年进行翻新工程。
原计划于7月4日关闭，但一名联邦法官暂时叫停了这一举措。
特朗普政府和肯尼迪艺术中心董事会在 ongoing 法律挑战中持续反驳相关诉求。该中心的律师曾威胁称，如果不允许进行翻新工程，将拆除这座建筑。
Whistleblowers accuse Kennedy Center officials of halting planned repairs later used to justify closure
2026-09-26 12:10 AM ET / CNN
By Aleena Fayaz, Sunlen Serfaty
Scaffolding is seen on the main building of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on September 17, 2026.
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.