White House denies access to CNN and Politico, despite court order

Hafter a Washington judge ordered the restoration of access to CNN and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and Politico to the White House, the newspaper revealed that the secret services of the official residence of the US President confiscated today the press credentials of one of his journalists and again prevented him access to the premises.

CNN also reported that they banned the entry of their staff this morning, reading on their website that “the White House enclosure was denied access to reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist”, without explanations.

In view of this situation, CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed an urgent request for a new hearing today, with the federal judge who last night ordered the White House to re-enlist access to professionals from these media.

Trump announced last Friday a veto on the political newspaper and the television channels CNN and MS NOW for allegedly spreading “fake news” and later accused them of endangering national security with their reports.

At the beginning of the week, the three media jointly filed a complaint for violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, with a federal judge, Timothy Kelly, ordered that they be restored access, considering that the prohibition occurred “without due process”.

The emergency order has temporary effect until October 8th, and determines the access of these media to the White House, at least “until the court issues another order or until the measure announced today expires”.

The D.C. District Court Judge granted, with the decision, the request of the media affected, who requested this temporary emergency order while examining the merits of the case.

Lawyers questioned the invocation of national security issues as the basis of the decision, when, they argued, Trump's first public statements focused on information he considered false or negative.

The case brought by CNN, MS NOW and Politico argues that the withdrawal of credentials is a reprisal for the content of their news and a violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, in addition to questioning the withdrawal of authorisations to journalists without prior notification, nor an opportunity to challenge the decision.

Following Trump’s decision to shut down access to CNN, Politico and MS NOW, the other four TV stations of the White House’s ‘pool’ – CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox News – decided to cease their participation in an unprecedented gesture of solidarity.

On the third day of the boycott of the video stream distributed to television stations, neither Fox News, nor CNN, nor MS NOW broadcast live the images of Donald Trump's reception to Chinese President Xi Jinping on the outskirts of Washington.