White House says banned media outlets allowed to return

The White House said in a legal filing that it has restored access, for now, to three media outlets that U.S. President Donald Trump had banned last week.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico said their journalists were readmitted after a federal court had ordered a suspension of Trump’s ban. Earlier, the news organizations said they’d been denied access to the White House grounds despite the judge’s order.

The networks made announcements during their broadcasts on Thursday.

Micah Stopperich, director of White House Press Operations, said the administration started restoring access to affected reporters early Thursday. The court order reinstating access was issued overnight, and Stopperich said press badges were available for pickup by 9:55 a.m. in Washington.

Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly had asked the White House to respond to complaints from the outlets that they weren’t allowed in despite his order to do so.

In his overnight order, Kelly directed the White House to temporarily reinstate access while a lawsuit filed by the media companies proceeds. The order is set to stay in place for two weeks. The judge said he’ll schedule a hearing later to consider whether to extend access for the journalists, once he’s received additional court filings by Oct. 5.

Trump announced on Sept. 18 that he was banning the three organizations from the White House, citing what he deemed unfavorable coverage. In formal letters sent to the outlets four days later, the administration said the decision was based on national security concerns related to news reports about the administration.

The letters, which were provided to the court, highlighted several reports from the news outlets that appeared to rely on anonymous sourcing or revealed information about internal discussions or actions taken by administration officials on subjects ranging from Iran to international sanctions to the Republican convention.

Kelly said that the news organizations met the “high bar” of showing they were likely to succeed in the merits of the case, citing a lack of due process, violation of constitutional freedoms and the overall public interest. However, he didn’t directly address whether they are also likely to win their broader allegation that the ban violates the First Amendment’s protections for the press.

In their lawsuit, CNN, MS NOW and Politico argue that the ban is a “direct assault” on the First Amendment and “a blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”

Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for the news outlets, said during a Wednesday hearing that the president is free to criticize the press and their coverage of his administration as much as he wants. “What he can’t do is use the power of the government to punish them for their expression,” Boutrous said.

Trump has for years labeled critical coverage of his administration and policies as “fake news,” and his decision to ban the outlets is the latest in a series of moves by his administration to curb press access to events and spaces that are in the public interest.

Dozens of news organizations, including Bloomberg News, Dow Jones and Reuters, signed on to an amicus brief submitted to the court in support of the banned outlets.

The case is Cable News Network v. Trump, 26-cv-3287, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.