Federal judge orders temporary restoration of White House press access for CNN, MSNBC, Politico

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to temporarily restore access to the three media organizations banned from covering White House events last week by President Trump.

In a ruling issued shortly after midnight, Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to CNN, MSNBC and Politico, which had press credentials of their journalists covering the White House revoked on Saturday at the request of President Trump.

CNN, MSNBC and Politico filed a joint lawsuit against Trump to challenge that decision on Monday, on the grounds that their constitutional rights had been violated.

Trump told reporters on Friday that his decision to ban the three media outlets from White House grounds had not been sparked by any specific reporting but the accumulation of what he called "two years of unfair and negative coverage."

However, a court filing by the Department of Justice on Wednesday argued that the three news organizations were barred because their reporting jeopardized national security and spread falsehoods.

In his ruling, Kelly said "the court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants' interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes."

He also argued that the defendants offered no evidence to explain how "any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged national security." Adding that the reporters who authored the stories that the DOJ lawyers identified in their letters to the three media "did not even hold hard passes."