The Trump administration said in a legal filing that it has restored access for now to three media outlets that President Donald Trump had banned from White House grounds last week.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico said their journalists were readmitted after a federal court had ordered a suspension of the ban. Earlier, the news organizations said they’d been denied access despite the judge’s order.
The networks made announcements during their broadcasts on Thursday.
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Micah Stopperich, director of White House Press Operations, said the administration started restoring access to affected reporters early Thursday. The court order reinstating access was issued overnight and Stopperich said press badges were available for pickup by 9:55 a.m. in Washington.
US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly had asked the White House earlier in the day to respond to complaints from the outlets that they weren’t allowed in early Thursday morning despite his order to do so.
Trump announced on Sept. 18 that he was banning the three organizations from the White House, citing their unfavorable coverage. The outlets said that when they received formal letters four days later, the administration cited national security grounds.
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In the overnight order, Kelly ordered the White House to temporarily reinstate access while a lawsuit filed by the media companies proceeds. The order is set to stay in place for two weeks.
Kelly said that the news organizations met the “high bar” of showing they were likely to succeed in the merits of the case, citing a lack of due process, violation of constitutional freedoms and the overall public interest.
Trump has for years labeled critical coverage of his administration and policies as “fake news,” and his decision to ban the outlets is the latest in a series of moves by his administration to curb press access to events and spaces that are in the public interest.
Dozens of news organizations, including Bloomberg News, Dow Jones and Reuters, signed on to an amicus brief submitted to the court in support of the banned outlets.
The case is Cable News Network v. Trump, 26-cv-3287, US District Court, District of Columbia.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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