By Susan Heavey and Helen Coster
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The White House said on Thursday it has reinstated journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico after a federal judge deemed US President Donald Trump’s ban of the three news outlets likely unconstitutional and ordered their access immediately restored.
The midday reinstatement came after a chaotic few hours earlier on Thursday when the journalists continued to be blocked from entering the White House grounds. That prompted the three news organizations to request an immediate hearing before US District Judge Tim Kelly, who issued his decision overnight.
Kelly, acting in a lawsuit brought by CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday, ordered a halt to Trump’s ban for 14 days in a press freedom case that has played out over the past week in the courtroom and White House grounds.
Kelly found that the revocation of the White House credentials of the journalists “likely violated their constitutional due process rights.”
The judge, who Trump appointed in 2017 during his first presidential term, also raised doubts about the US Justice Department’s national security arguments for justifying the ban, noting that Trump himself had said the action was due to what the president alleged was false or negative coverage.
Hours after Kelly issued his order, CNN, MS NOW and Politico told the judge they remained barred, and asked for the emergency hearing. Politico said its reporter’s credentials were confiscated. An MS NOW reporter said she was blocked from the White House. CNN said some of its staff members were denied entry onto the grounds.
In response, Micah Stopperich, the director of press operations at the White House, said in a court filing that the White House began the process of reinstating press badges for affected reporters at 7:25 a.m., and that the “White House press team dropped badges at the entry gate for members of the press to pick up around 9:55 a.m.”
After receiving Stopperich’s declaration, the judge denied the request by the news organizations for an emergency hearing but gave them an opportunity to inform him of any factual developments later in the day.
The sharpest conflict yet between Trump and the press played out during a key diplomatic moment for the US president: his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and his hosting of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
A source familiar with the White House television press pool said its members would not reinstate their coverage until the White House formally reinstates CNN to the pool. Earlier this week, they had suspended pooled coverage in solidarity with CNN.
There were no TV pool cameras set up for Xi’s arrival on the White House’s South Lawn on Thursday morning, and FOX News, MS NOW and CNN did not air the two leaders’ arrival ceremony live.
During Trump’s welcome of Xi to the White House, the president made a joke to photographers in the Oval Office about the Chinese having the friendliest press corps.
CNN is one of the five news organizations – along with ABC, CBS, FOX News and NBC – that make up the primary White House television pool. They share the costs of covering the president, take turns organizing coverage and provide footage to other outlets.
CNN had been scheduled to cover Trump’s trip to New York for the General Assembly on Monday, but was not able to provide a pool feed.
NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
Trump announced the ban on Friday on his social media platform, saying those news organizations “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States.” Trump framed their reporting as a threat to US national security.
The three outlets sued Trump and other members of his administration, saying the ban violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press, as well as their due process rights. A coalition of press freedom groups and dozens of news organizations, including Reuters, later filed a legal brief supporting the three news outlets.
Kelly ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the outlets’ press passes and stop enforcing the ban for two weeks. The judge rejected the administration’s stated national security concerns.
“The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds,” Kelly wrote.
In a filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department accused the outlets of threatening national security with their coverage, citing stories about US missile stockpiles, construction of Trump’s White House ballroom and turnout at the recent Republican midterm convention.
Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for the three outlets, welcomed the judge’s decision in a statement, saying: “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
TENSIONS WITH THE PRESS
Although other presidential administrations have battled with the press, Trump’s campaign against the media has been unprecedented. Upending decades of tradition, his White House had denied basic access to many major news organizations, launched personal attacks on journalists and filed multiple lawsuits against news organizations.
Kelly’s ruling came a day after Trump experienced another legal setback.
On Wednesday, an Iowa judge dismissed Trump’s 2024 lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer. Trump sued the Register, its parent company Gannett and Selzer over a poll published ahead of the November 2024 US election that showed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leading him in Iowa. Trump accused the newspaper and its longtime pollster of fraudulently misleading readers.
In his ruling Wednesday, Iowa District Judge Scott Beattie said the poll was legally protected speech.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Helen Coster in New York; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Gram Slattery, Trevor Hunicutt, David Morgan and Jack Queen; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Doina Chiacu, Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman)
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