USA24 September, 20263 min read
Judge Timothy Kelly Orders White House To Reinstate CNN, MS NOW, Politico Access
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Judge Timothy Kelly ordered White House to reinstate CNN, MS NOW, and Politico access. Access restoration occurred after hours of initial denial despite court order.
43 outlets told this the same way.
White House Access Restored
A judge ordered the White House to temporarily restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico after President Donald Trump had banned the three outlets from the White House for days.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access, and Kelly said the outlets had met the legal thresholds for a temporary restraining order.
The White House operations officials said they needed time to find, reactivate and deliver entry badges, and the process took over two hours, according to an administration court filing.
The White House also kept CNN out of the video pool, even after the ruling, and CNN said its journalists were denied access to Xi’s state dinner arrival while other reporters were allowed in.
Trump posted online that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years ... because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to “TRUMP.”
Pool Coverage and Denied Entry
CNN, MS NOW and Politico returned to the White House grounds on Thursday after the judge blocked the ban, and Betsy Klein of CNN and Laura Barrón-López of MS NOW began reporting live on air. NBC News reported that two reporters for CNN and another from MS NOW were turned away from the state dinner arrivals even though the outlets were admitted back onto White House grounds earlier in the day. CNN wrote that the White House said it would only allow a photojournalist and an audio technician to Xi’s state dinner arrival, and CNN said it refused to allow a reporter and a producer entry.
MS NOW reported that journalist Laura Barrón-López was also denied entry to the arrival ceremony on the portico ahead of the state dinner. The White House schedule listed a “Secondary TV” correspondent and crew, Lindell TV, and the other four major networks had declined to participate in the so-called video pool in solidarity.
Legal Fight Continues
The temporary restraining order that reinstated access expires in two weeks, and the judge gave both sides until Oct. 5 to file.
Kelly said the government must have clear standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass, and Kelly called the White House letters’ standard of objectionable reporting “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, and the decision noted Trump himself had not used that argument at the beginning.
The outlets’ attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. said the judge’s quick ruling vindicated the freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law, and Boutrous said, “I think we’re going to end up stronger because of this.”
Trump continued to frame the dispute as a media fight, saying in the Oval Office that he “don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” and he said the policy was a response to “cumulative stories over the last few years.”