Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to cover Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrival at a White House state dinner on Thursday
Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to cover Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival at a White House state dinner on Thursday, even after a federal judge had ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore the outlets’ press credentials.
The three organisations had their hard-pass access revoked on September 18, prompting a lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order overnight requiring the administration to reinstate their access for 14 days while the case proceeds.
Despite the ruling, reporters from the banned outlets were still being blocked from entering the White House grounds early Thursday.
After journalists were turned away again, the outlets’ attorneys asked Kelly for an emergency hearing, arguing the administration had “already repeatedly violated” the court’s order.
Kelly declined to hold an immediate hearing but ordered the White House to respond in writing by 12:30 p.m.
In a filing shortly before that deadline, Micah Stopperich, director of White House press operations, said her team had begun working to restore access after receiving word at 7:10 a.m. and completed the process just under three hours later.
By Thursday afternoon, reporters from all three outlets, including CNN’s Betsy Klein and MS NOW’s Laura Barrón-López, were allowed back onto the grounds and began reporting live.
In granting the temporary restraining order, Kelly found the outlets were likely to succeed in showing their credentials had been revoked “without constitutionally adequate due process,” rejecting the administration’s argument that the ban was justified by national-security concerns over the outlets’ reporting.
The White House has argued the barred outlets were “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods” about national security and other issues. Even with journalists reinstated, the broader television pool made up of CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News remained in limbo, awaiting confirmation that CNN would be allowed to resume its rotating pool duties.
The media plaintiffs must file a motion for a preliminary injunction by September 28, with the administration due to respond by October 2 and a hearing expected to follow.
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