Judge orders Trump administration to restore journalists' access to White House

A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to let CNN, MS NOW and Politico back onto White House grounds for two weeks after President Trump had their journalists' credentials pulled last Saturday. Judge Timothy Kelly's ruling, issued just after midnight, grants a 14-day temporary restraining order while a lawsuit the three outlets filed Monday plays out. That suit argues the credential revocations violated their constitutional rights, according to NPR.

Trump told reporters Friday that no single story prompted the bans, pointing instead to what he described as "two years of unfair and negative coverage." The Justice Department offered a different justification in a Wednesday court filing, arguing the outlets were barred because their reporting had endangered national security and spread falsehoods.

Kelly was unconvinced by that argument. He wrote that he was skeptical the government's stated national-security concerns were "the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by" pulling the outlets' hard passes, and said the administration had produced no evidence tying any specific reporting to security damage. Kelly further noted that the reporters named in the letters the Justice Department sent to the three outlets did not even hold hard passes themselves, undercutting the government's rationale for revoking credentials.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NPR’s reporting. Read the full story at NPR →