White House still blocking reporters despite court order

A US federal judge early yesterday temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored. However, reporters for two of the outlets were denied entry hours after the ruling.

The back-and-forth is the latest in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

Trump first announced he was banning the outlets on Friday, assailing what he called “fake news,” and later saying that their reporting was a risk to national security. The outlets said in a joint lawsuit that the ban was a blatant free speech violation because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.

CNN senior reporter Betsy Klein works outside the White House in Washington yesterday.

Photo: AP

In his late-night ruling, US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate and restore” the three outlets’ access.

They had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process, he said.

“This is a high bar, but plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote.

Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — also said the government must have clear standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass.

He called the standard of objectionable reporting outlined in letters that the White House sent the outlets “so vague it hardly does the trick.”

The judge also made clear he did not buy the administration’s argument that the news outlets’ reporting endangered national security, adding that Trump himself had not used that argument in the beginning, focusing solely on what he called negative coverage.

“Nothing in the record ... suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” he wrote.

The ruling came after Kelly heard arguments in an emergency hearing on Wednesday. Temporary restraining orders are typically designed to preserve the “status quo” pending a closer review of the case by the court.

However, a few hours after the ruling, a CNN reporter said she was denied entry to the White House compound. Politico said one of its reporters was also blocked.

The White House did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

Attorney for the outlets Theodore Boutrous Jr argued in the hearing that there was an urgent need for renewed access, saying that the ban caused irreparable harm to the outlets at a time of momentous news events.

“We’re at war. We have world leaders coming to Washington,” he said.