Lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico raced back to court Thursday morning after the White House failed to comply with a judge’s order lifting its ban on the news outlets.
Reporters for the three organizations quickly discovered their press badges did not work as they attempted to enter the White House ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s official visit to Washington, D.C. The lockout came just hours after Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to restore their access.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether the restricted access Thursday morning was intentional.
In an emergency filing, the outlets’ lawyers stressed the urgency of the situation.
“Time is of the essence,” the attorneys argued, noting that CNN was scheduled to serve as the television pool for Xi’s visit later in the day.
Kelly issued a 14-day temporary restraining order overnight after concluding that the news organizations were likely to succeed in their challenge to the press ban President Donald Trump issued Friday.
According to attorneys for the outlets, the administration’s lawyers failed to respond Thursday morning.
“Counsel for Plaintiffs reached out to counsel for Defendants this morning and requested to call the Court together. Counsel for Defendants has not responded,” the filing stated.
The news organizations accused the administration of ignoring the court’s directive and asked for a hearing without delay.
“Defendants have already repeatedly violated the Court’s Order. Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court set a hearing by videoconference or teleconference as soon as possible this morning,” the outlets’ legal representatives wrote in the court filing.
The Justice Department had argued that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the White House because of concerns that their reporting compromised national security. Kelly firmly rejected that argument in his decision.
“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,” the judge wrote.
Kelly also took aim at the lack of evidence the administration offered to support its national security claims.
“Defendants offer no declarations or other support—classified or unclassified—explaining how any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged the national security,” Kelly noted.
The judge further questioned the qualifications of the officials the administration relied on to make its case.
“The declarations they do provide include general background about classified information, but the declarants are senior officials in the Department of Defense who have no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here,” Kelly wrote.
The clash sets up a high-stakes showdown between the White House and the federal court just as the administration prepared to welcome the Chinese leader to the nation’s capital. With CNN slated to handle television pool duties for the visit, the outlets’ attorneys pressed the court to act quickly, arguing that the administration had already repeatedly violated the judge’s order and had not responded to their outreach Thursday morning.
[READ MORE: Judge Limits Trump’s Control Over White House Press Access, Orders Three Outlets Reinstated]
