A federal judge is giving Donald Trump until 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday to explain why White House credentials are still being denied to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, even after the court’s order to have them restored.
The deadline comes amid concerns beyond those of the media outlets over access: That the president may be openly defying an order from the judicial branch, amid fears by democracy advocates that Trump would eventually trigger a constitutional crisis.
The three outlets alerted U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to the continued denial of access, hours after he granted them a temporary restraining order. The order concluded that Trump’s ban on the outlets from the outlets violated due process, and ordered the hard passes to the White House complex immediately restored.
Meanwhile, as Trump was greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House, there was a lack of video images telecasting the moment. After CNN was pulled by the Trump administration from the TV pool on Monday, the four other networks suspended their participation as well in protest. CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox News make up the rest of the pool. Even though Politico is part of the print pool, there has been no similar unified effort among other outlets to refrain from participation in that rotation.
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Conor Fitzpatrick, chief supervising attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement that “court orders are not optional. The law requires all Americans to abide by court rulings, regardless of whether they disagree with the ruling, unless and until the ruling is stayed or overturned on appeal.
“Refusal to abide by a court ruling has a name: contempt. And contempt has clear consequences.” He added that Trump’s refusal to abide by the order would be “a dangerous escalation and a affront to the rule of law.”
Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that Kelly’s ruling “is an important win for the American public. The judge rightly recognized the irreparable damage that this media ban has inflicted on the targeted news outlets. These harms spread throughout the entire press corps, as the broad amicus coalition we represented so powerfully demonstrated.”
He added, “Given the early reports that the White House is not restoring access, the most important next step is ensuring that the administration honors the injunction and rule of law.”
