Federal judge extends White House access to Politico, CNN and MS NOW after ban 

A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order granting White House access to Politico, CNN and MS NOW after President Donald Trump banned them from the complex in September.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, said Trump’s ban likely violated due process and said the news outlets were likely to succeed on their First Amendment claims. The preliminary injunction continues an earlier, temporary order that restored White House access to the outlets as litigation proceeds.

Trump announced the ban on Truth Social on Sept. 18, saying it was a result of the outlets reporting “fake news” and arguing “media outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies” when covering the president. The outlets promptly sued Trump, telling the court the ban “could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment.”

In a follow-up Truth Social post, Trump disputed the claim that he violated the First Amendment.

“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” he wrote, further adding that it was a “threat to our National Security, and must be stopped.”

“It is likely that Plaintiffs were selected by President Trump for revocation of their access to the White House press area because he believes their coverage of him and his administration is generally inaccurate and biased,” the judge wrote in Tuesday’s court order, disagreeing with the notion that the ban was due to any compelling government interest.

“Simply put, that is unlawful viewpoint discrimination,” he wrote.

The judge clarified that although the news outlets were likely to win their constitutional arguments, “no one should interpret the Court’s decision to suggest that President Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media’s reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed.”

The attorney for the three news outlets, Theodore Boutrous, told Heartlander News the court was “right to enjoin the White House from enforcing this ‘unconstitutional ban on the free press’ for the foreseeable future.”

Trump’s ban “blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment,” he said. “The President has repeatedly, candidly, and consistently admitted in public that he banned our clients from the White House to punish reporting he doesn’t like and to try to force journalists to cover him in ways he prefers. The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound.”

A White House official told Heartlander News that the White House intends to appeal “this misguided decision.”

“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”