US judge blocks Trump’s White House ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico

A United States judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on three news outlets from the White House, ordering his administration to immediately restore their access pending a later court hearing.

Issuing a temporary restraining order early on Thursday, US District Judge Timothy J Kelly said CNN, MS NOW and Politico were likely to prevail in their legal challenge to Trump’s ban on several grounds, including that it violated their due process rights.

Kelly said the outlets had made a convincing case that they were stripped of their credentials without due process and were likely to suffer “irreparable harm” in the absence of the temporary order.

Kelly, who was nominated by Trump during his first term in 2017, also found there was a public interest in blocking the ban “given the importance of the free press”.

Rejecting the Trump administration’s claim that the outlets had been barred to protect national security, Kelly said the government’s argument lacked “factual support”.

“Defendants offer no declarations or other support – classified or unclassified – explaining how any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged the national security,” Kelly said in the ruling.

Kelly ruled that the Trump administration should “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the outlets’ access to the White House.

Kelly imposed the injunction for 14 days, pending further proceedings.

Theodore Boutrous, the lawyer representing the outlets, welcomed the ruling as a vindication of the “freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law”.

“We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action,” Boutrous said in a statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who has launched a slew of attacks on the media as president, on Friday announced that he had barred CNN, Politico and MS NOW from covering the White House, citing their reporting of unspecified “fake news”.

Trump later claimed in a news conference that the outlets produced “negative news” and sought to “diminish” his administration and the Republican Party.

CNN, Politico and MS NOW on Monday announced they had jointly filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban, arguing it violated their free speech and due process rights.