WASHINGTON (AURN News) — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to respond by Tuesday to a lawsuit filed by CNN, MS NOW and Politico and scheduled a hearing for Wednesday afternoon on the outlets’ request to immediately restore their White House access.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly has ruled on a similar White House press-access dispute before. In 2018, he ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s White House press pass.
Reporters from all three outlets were denied access to the White House on Saturday after their credentials were deactivated, and some press passes were confiscated by the Secret Service. In Monday’s lawsuit, the outlets argue that the ban violates their First Amendment rights.
President Donald Trump has said the outlets’ coverage is deliberately negative and one-sided and has repeatedly called them “fake news.”
In response, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC declined to replace CNN during its scheduled White House television pool rotation, leaving the pool without its usual coverage — a rare show of solidarity among competing networks.
The case is the latest flashpoint in an ongoing fight over White House press access.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @ebonymcmorris & @aurnonline.
