CNN, MS NOW, Politico back in court to fight Trump

Washington — The Justice Department and lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico are back in court Thursday as the legal battle continues over President Trump's decision to ban reporters from the three news outlets from the White House over what he said is their negative coverage of his administration.

"Every day, critically important news is breaking at the White House, and the ban will substantially interfere with Plaintiffs' ability to cover it," they argued in a filing. "The ban also inflicts an injury on all news media organizations — which now risk a similar fate if they engage in fact-based, independent reporting the President deems insufficiently favorable."

The journalists regained access to the White House complex and had their press credentials returned nearly 12 hours after Kelly, appointed by Mr. Trump, issued his order. But the White House has refused to allow CNN and Politico in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One, places that are opened up to the press pool, a rotating group of journalists that covers the president's movements each day.

CBS News and CNN are both part of Skydance, the parent company formed following the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery that was finalized this week.

The morning after he announced the ban, reporters from each of the three outlets who arrived at the White House for work were turned away and had their passes confiscated by the Secret Service.

The following day, the White House sent letters to each of the three news outlets informing them that certain articles they had published on topics including the new White House ballroom, the ongoing war with Iran and the Republican midterm convention were threats to national security and violated standards of "professionalism and decorum" for reporters.

The White House gave CNN, MS NOW and Politico a Sept. 25 deadline to respond to the letters, but the Justice Department said each declined to do so.

"At base, the empty, malleable supposed standards cited by the White House do nothing but authorize Defendants to punish reporting they dislike in violation of the Due Process Clause and First Amendment," Ted Boutrous, who is representing the news outlets, said in a filing.

The plaintiffs noted that the Trump administration has continued to retaliate against them even after Kelly's temporary order, demonstrating that the White House's "motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike."

Since announcing the ban, the White House has "sought to justify the President's 'ban on the free press' with a series of shifting rationales, lurching from unarticulated standards of professionalism to nebulous and pretextual concerns about protecting national security," Boutrous said in a filing. "But all the while, the President himself has continued telling anyone who will listen precisely what this ban is really about."

"At a bare minimum, it is a significant violation of decorum to publish classified and sensitive national security information," Michael Velchik, senior counsel of the Justice Department's Civil Division, wrote in a filing.

"After all, access to the White House is a privilege — not a right," he wrote.