Sept. 23 (UPI) — The Trump administration responded to a lawsuit by CNN, MS NOW and Politico by arguing that the news organizations’ reporting threatened national security.
The three news outlets filed suit against President Donald Trump because he banned their reporters from the White House on Friday and took away their credentials because he didn’t like their coverage of him.
They said they were filing the suit “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
They filed documents requesting a temporary restraining order to force the White House to allow them in while the case continues. The filing Wednesday is in response to the motion for the restraining order.
“Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,” the administration said in the filing.
“The President’s actions must be sustained because the President has ‘compelling interest[s]’ in enforcing minimum standards for bona fide journalists and safeguarding national security information,” the filing said.
The court filing said the White House had sent letters to the plaintiffs explaining that the reporters had “exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”
The letters cite articles like CNN’s story about the construction of a secure underground facility beneath the White House East Wing, and an article Politico published saying the Iran war has made the United States more vulnerable.
The “[h]ard pass credentials are reserved for those who abide by standards of professional conduct, demonstrate a level of trustworthiness commensurate with the privilege of unfettered access to the White House Complex, and perform their duties in a way that does not interfere with the White House’s daily operations,” it said.
“The President believes basic journalistic standards require calling, asking for comment, and providing a reasonable opportunity for a response. At a bare minimum, it is a significant violation of decorum to publish classified and sensitive national security information,” the document said.
There is no law that explicitly makes it a crime for a journalist to obtain or publish classified information.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs are the three media outlets and their White House reporters MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner, CNN’s Betsy Klein and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett, who all lost their credentials.
Defendants are Trump, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran.
Other media outlets who provide video coverage of Trump’s events and press conferences decided to stop doing so, leaving Trump’s media events without microphones.
The Department of Justice lawyers and lawyers for the media outlets will meet in court before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly Wednesday. In 2018, Kelly granted a temporary restraining order to allow CNN reporter Jim Acosta access to the White House after Trump banned him.
Trump has said he will follow Kelly’s ruling if he orders that the White House allow the reporters back in. But he argues that he should have the right to kick them out.
“I’m talking about national security, and I think we have a right to clean out fake news,” he said Tuesday.
Source: U.S. News
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