The Trump administration submitted a court filing defending its decision to ban three media outlets from White House press briefings.
This comes after Politico, CNN, and MS NOW sued the administration over the ban.
From The New York Times:
White House officials said in a court filing Tuesday that President Trump had determined that CNN, MS NOW and Politico had breached standards of conduct, leading to their expulsion from the grounds of the White House.
The alleged violations, said the filing, include “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”
“Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,” reads the filing, which argues that Mr. Trump’s action against the three news outlets does not violate the First Amendment and aligns with a long history of presidents favoring some journalists over others.
The filing, furthermore, claims that the White House’s denial of access is a preliminary matter and that the outlets have until Friday to contest the decision.
The clash began Friday, when Mr. Trump announced on Truth Social, the platform that he owns, that he would ban the three outlets, saying they “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES.” On Saturday morning, journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to the White House grounds and had their press passes confiscated.
…
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who was nominated in 2017 by Mr. Trump, will hold an emergency hearing on Wednesday to consider the media outlets’ request for a temporary court order undoing the access ban.
The government filing Tuesday night included copies of letters sent earlier in the day to each banned news outlet. In addition to accusing the organizations of failing to meet standards of conduct, the letters identified specific stories that allegedly either spread falsehoods or threatened national security. The letter to CNN, for example, cited a January 2026 story that “disclosed ‘top-secret’ construction details related to the East Wing bunker,” the letter reads.
One of MS NOW’s alleged infractions, according to a White House letter, was a June 2026 story claiming “a source said that President Trump ‘underestimated the willingness of Iran to resume conflict.’” Politico is accused of publishing a “document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements,” according to a White House letter.
POLITICO will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.
— POLITICO Press (@POLITICOPress) September 18, 2026
The claims that POLITICO received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked. https://t.co/qY8dJG5qdq
Trump announced the ban in a post on Truth Social on Friday, saying the outlets should not be allowed to “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES.”
Secret Service officers on Saturday turned away reporters from the three outlets and confiscated their hard passes.
The outlets issued a joint statement saying, “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting.”
In their complaint, the outlets argued that the ban “could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination and retaliation for protected reporting and that it also violates the Fifth Amendment because they did not have a chance to contest the decision.
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