CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sue Trump administration after White House bars their reporters; TV networks halt pool coverage
President Trump announced on Friday that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would be barred from White House access, stating he objected to their coverage of him. By Saturday, journalists from those outlets said their press passes had been confiscated and they were denied entry to the White House grounds. On Monday, the three news organizations filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleging violations of First and Fifth Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the Trump administration violated the three outlets' First Amendment free press rights and Fifth Amendment due process protections. The plaintiffs, represented by First Amendment attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn, asked a federal judge to hear the case on an expedited basis and to restore full White House access. Named as defendants in their official capacities are President Trump, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House communications director Steven Cheung, and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran. Individual reporters Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, Betsy Klein of CNN, and Cheyenne Haslett of Politico are also listed as plaintiffs.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee who previously oversaw CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's 2018 legal battle to restore his press pass — a case in which Kelly granted a temporary restraining order and the White House subsequently allowed Acosta back in. Boutrous told NPR that legal precedents, including a 1977 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling holding that reporters cannot be barred from White House access without a clear explanation and due process, support the news organizations' case.
CNN's removal from the White House created an immediate logistical disruption. The network is one of five outlets — along with ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News — that rotate responsibility in the White House television pool, sharing the costs and footage of covering presidential events. Following CNN's exclusion from the president's travel schedule for his trip to the United Nations in New York, the remaining four pool members announced they would halt TV coverage of presidential events designated as pool coverage. "Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President," wrote Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who serves as pool chair, in a memo obtained by both NPR and The Washington Post. A joint statement from all five pool members said: "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting."