DOJ argues White House press access is 'a privilege—not a right'

Filing cites East Wing bunker, Iran war, Russia sanctions reporting

The Department of Justice defended President Trump’s revocation of press credentials for CNN, MS Now, and Politico in a late Tuesday court filing, asking a federal court to deny the news organizations’ request to have their White House access restored.

The filing came in response to a Monday lawsuit by the three outlets and was submitted hours before an emergency session scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Washington, D.C. The case will further test First Amendment protections under the Trump administration.

In its Tuesday filing, the DOJ argued that Trump revoked White House grounds access to the three media outlets because he “concluded that they have failed to maintain basic minimum standards of professionalism and decorum” and for “publishing sensitive or classified information.” The department also asserted that “access to the White House is a privilege—not a right.”

The DOJ response included White House letters dated Sept. 22 in which the administration accused the three barred outlets of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”

The letters cited specific reporting that the White House said crossed those lines. Letters to CNN and MS Now pointed to coverage of the construction of the White House’s East Wing bunker and the reported depletion of U.S. ammunition stockpiles during the Iran war. The letter to Politico contested its reporting on the Trump administration’s lifting of sanctions against Russia and rebuked Politico’s coverage of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas as “a disaster.”

The three news organizations filed their lawsuit Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the revocation violated their First Amendment rights not to be punished by the federal government over their news coverage. The lawsuit also cited their Fifth Amendment right to due process — the principle that the government cannot take away rights or privileges without warning or a process to intercede or appeal.

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit said.

The White House set a Friday deadline for the banned media organizations to submit written complaints contesting Trump’s decision. The ban was imposed four days before the Sept. 22 letters.

The action against the three outlets is the latest instance of Trump’s effort to restrict press access. In his first term, he revoked press credentials for Jim Acosta, then a CNN White House correspondent. Trump also denied Oval Office and Air Force One access to the Associated Press over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s preferred name of “Gulf of America” — a case that remains in the courts.

On Friday, Trump told reporters at the White House that his decision to bar CNN, MS Now, and Politico was not triggered by any single piece of reporting but by what he described as two years of unfair and negative coverage.