WASHINGTON: Already embroiled in a tense legal standoff with the White House, CNN is threatening further action in the courts if its journalists continue to be denied access to Air Force One and the “pool” of journalists who accompany President Donald Trump when he travels.
The network has been entangled in legal action with Trump’s administration ever since the president issued its reporters a sudden ban from White House grounds a month ago, along with those from MS NOW and Politico, calling their content “fake news.” Last week, a federal judge granted the news outlets their request for a preliminary injunction against the government ban as the case moves through the legal system.
But that only addresses part of the problem.
The White House has continued to bar CNN from taking its place in TV pool coverage of Trump’s travel on Air Force One. And so the network may need to take additional action, said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., an attorney for CNN, in a letter to Justice Department attorney Michael K. Velchik.
Media attorney says the spaces in question ‘belong to all Americans’
Boutrous noted in the letter late Monday that CNN has traditionally had “uninterrupted access to the Oval Office and Air Force One for 45 years. That is because those spaces belong not to any particular president or administration but to all Americans, and CNN and other members of the press serve as surrogates for the public when covering the White House.”
Now, though, the White House is engaging in “what appears to be a new unstated policy to interfere with CNN’s ability to fulfill its duties” as part ot the video pool. The pool consists of the five major US networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox, who alternate assignments and share video.
Boutrous noted that in his most recent ruling, US District Judge Timothy Kelly had found the three media outlets were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the White House violated the First Amendment and due process with Trump’s ban, and thus were entitled to the relief they requested.
Still, though, the White House has selectively denied CNN access to cover the president’s travel on Air Force One — no fewer than four times to date, Boutrous wrote.
Such “efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” the attorney wrote.
“If these actions persist, CNN will have no choice but to return to the court to defend its rights, and it is prepared to fight as long as is necessary to secure them.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a query from The Associated Press seeking reaction to the letter, in which Boutrous gave the White House two days to respond.
The showdown began in September
The extraordinary showdown between Trump and CNN, whose personalities he has mocked publicly, began more than a month ago. Trump announced on Sept. 18 that he was barring the network’s reporters, along with those from MS NOW and Politico, from White House grounds. The next day, journalists found their passes had been deactivated.
It was a marked escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable, and a test of First Amendment protections in the United States.
Kelly first granted relief from the ban for two weeks, then granted the open-ended preliminary injunction last week.
And yet, the letter said, the network had been denied access to Air Force One in September for Trump’s visit to the UN General Assembly, for a football game in Knoxville, Tennessee, and for a trip to Texas and Oklahoma. This month, it was denied access to the plane for a trip to Georgia and Florida. In all cases, CNN was the scheduled pool network.
There has, however, been no explanation from the White House, Boutrous wrote. “In fact, the White House has not even directly stated to CNN that it is being excluded from the Oval Office or Air Force One.”