A federal judge appeared skeptical Wednesday of the Trump administration’s move banning three media organizations from the White House, and said he will rule on the matter "as soon as I can.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said President Donald Trump’s effort to strip credentials from POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW appeared to violate binding legal precedents requiring that journalists have advance notice of the rules they must observe.
The Trump-appointed judge said during an emergency hearing sought by the media organizations that the legal precedent “wasn’t followed here.”
Kelly’s decision to refrain from an immediate ruling means Trump’s ban will remain in force for now, leaving 78 journalists at the three outlets who previously held credentials without access to the White House complex.
An attorney for the news organizations, Theodore Boutrous Jr., urged Kelly to rule as quickly as possible — preferably by Wednesday evening — to ensure they can cover a series of high-profile White House events this week, including Thursday's visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington.
Boutrous asked the judge to conclude that Trump’s ban also violated the media organizations’ First Amendment protections against “viewpoint discrimination” by the government. Trump, he noted, repeatedly said the three outlets were being banned because of their “negative” coverage.
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik argued that the ban was rooted in national security concerns based on reporting the three news organizations had published in recent months — a rationale adopted only after the restrictions were announced.
“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” Velchik said.
Boutrous also scoffed at a series of letters the White House sent to the news outlets Monday night. The unsigned correspondence cited reports that the White House contends contained classified or sensitive information — though some were simply unflattering.
“They’re using national security as a talisman, a magic word,” Boutrous said. “This is just pretextual, post-hoc effort to justify just a blatant violation of due process.”
Velchik also cited the Chinese leader’s imminent state visit, urging Kelly not to restore the credentials while that critical event is playing out. “I think there would be serious separation of powers concerns as well as national security concerns [if the court acts] during that period,” the DOJ attorney said.
Velchik instead said the judge should wait to rule until the weekend — after a Friday 5 p.m. deadline Trump set to finalize what the Justice Department described as “preliminary” credential revocations. Trump could theoretically reverse his decision by then, Velchik noted.
While Boutrous argued that the criteria the White House is now seeking to apply are impossibly vague, Velchik disagreed.
“The general standards of journalistic professionalism are well known,” the DOJ attorney said.
Kelly didn’t acknowledge a series of attacks Trump lobbed at the judge this week. In a social media post late Tuesday, Trump described the judge as “totally disloyal” and likely to rule against the administration’s position.
from White House https://ift.tt/Ov4endk
https://ift.tt/jIyGs3l
0 Comments