Judge Extends White House Access for American Media Amid Trump Standoff

CNN, MS Now and Politico can keep their access to the White House, as the judge believes Trump's ban is likely illegal.

A federal judge has expanded access to several media organizations that US President Donald Trump sought to bar from the White House.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said Trump likely violated the law in barring reporters from CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House briefings.

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The decision, released late Tuesday, expands on an emergency order issued by Kelly on Sept. 24 that temporarily restored access to the agencies. The statement said Trump may have discriminated against news organizations based on their viewpoints, a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

He wrote that "Trump's announcement of the ban and subsequent statements explaining why make it a simple conclusion: President Trump likely banned the whistleblowers from the White House because he believed their reporting was generally inaccurate and biased against him."

In announcing the ban, Trump said organizations "should not be able to consistently write or report stories and lies when covering the President of the United States."

The Department of Justice subsequently announced that the White House reporters' licenses had been revoked for national security reasons.

"First, there is no evidence in the record that President Trump decided to rescind the plaintiffs' hard passes for national security reasons in the first place, nor has he ever directly stated that national security was the reason for his decision.

The latest order is until Kelly, a first-term Trump appointee, makes a final decision on the case or until an appeals court intervenes.

Trump has long been a critic of America's legacy media and has previously sought to limit access to some organizations.

He has also launched rhetorical attacks against individual journalists, both in person and on social media, while launching a series of lawsuits against media companies.

Theodore Boutros, a lawyer for the three banned organizations, said during an Oct. 8 hearing that Trump was seeking to "force better coverage."

The Press Freedom Foundation was among the groups that cheered the court's latest ruling.

"But this fight is far from over," senior defense counsel Caitlin Voges said in a statement.

"We have every reason to expect that the administration will challenge the latest executive order and also continue to block CNN and Politico from participating in coverage of the president," he said. Trump should not be allowed to undermine basic First Amendment protections by hand-picking his press corps or turning pool duties into rewards for favorable coverage.