Trump’s Secret Service continues blockade of media outlets, which demand emergency hearing
by Susan Ferrechio · The Washington TimesThree media outlets have asked for an emergency hearing after the Secret Service defied a Thursday court order reinstating their credentials and access to the White House.
“This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW and Politico attempted to enter the White House and were turned away,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the outlets’ lawyer, wrote in a two-page declaration filed in U.S. District Court.
The “notice of noncompliance” comes just a few hours after Judge Timothy Kelly early Thursday issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against President Trump’s ban of the three outlets.
The judge ordered the Trump administration to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the press credentials revoked nearly a week ago by the White House.
So far, the White House security team has not complied.
Since the ban, nearly 80 journalists who work for the three outlets have been blocked from entering the White House, where they normally work and cover Mr. Trump.
On Thursday, instead of granting them access, a Secret Service agent “confiscated the hard pass of journalists from all three organizations” and declined to restore the credentials of a journalist who had her pass seized last weekend.
The Washington Times reached out to the White House about the matter.
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The president revoked the credentials of the three outlets on Friday, citing their “fake news” and overwhelmingly negative coverage of his administration. He later claimed the outlets, through their reporting, endangered national security.
The judge appeared unconvinced by the Trump team’s national security argument put forward in arguments Wednesday by Justice Department senior counsel Michael Velchik.
“Certainly that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ’banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House,” Judge Kelly wrote in his order, issued around 2 a.m. Thursday. “Instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiff’s reporting.”
The White House this week sent letters to the three outlets detailing reasons for the ban and giving them until Friday to respond.
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Susan Ferrechio
sferrechio@washingtontimes.com
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