The Trump administration filed an emergency motion with a federal appeals court on Friday seeking to resume construction of a $400 million White House ballroom project that was halted by a federal judge's order.

U.S. National Park Service lawyers argued in the motion that the court-ordered suspension of construction poses national security risks to the White House, the president, his family, and presidential staff. The legal filing described the facility as designed to be "heavily fortified."

The administration's appeal asks the federal appeals court to pause the lower court's ruling that stopped work on the construction project. Officials characterized the situation as creating "grave national-security harms" in their legal documents.

The $400 million project involves the construction of new facilities at the White House complex. Details about the specific nature of the federal judge's original order halting construction were not immediately available.

The case highlights tensions between judicial oversight of federal construction projects and executive branch claims about national security requirements for presidential facilities.