CNN sues Trump administration over Acosta press pass revocation

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This subject was, surprisingly, not touched upon on TVNT when the story broke, but on Wednesday (November 7), the White House press office indefinitely suspended the hard pass (the pass which reporters need to access the building) of White House correspondent Jim Acosta, after Trump got into a verbal confrontation with Acosta over his questioning over Trump's rhetoric on the migrant caravan and the Russia investigation post-midterms, leading to an intern trying to take his microphone twice and the White House circulating a sped-up video (first posted by Infowars contributor/conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson) made to look as if Acosta had made a hostile chopping motion on the intern's arm (which he accidentally brushed as she attempted to take the mic the first time).

 

One week after that incident, CNN has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (naming as defendants Donald Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Secret Service Director Randolph Alles and a Secret Service employee whom informed Acosta that his hard pass had been revoked, who is identified only as “John Doe,” presumptively for security purposes), demanding the immediate reinstatement of Acosta’s credentials to cover the White House - or restoration pending a hearing before a “neutral” arbiter - on grounds that the revocation violated freedom of the press rights protected under the First Amendment. The suit also alleges violations of the Fifth Amendment (which guarantees due process in government actions), and the Administrative Procedure Act. The White House Correspondents' Association has backed the suit.

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An update to this story: Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee who presided over the case, has ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate Jim Acosta's press pass, stating Acosta suffered “irreparable harm” through the administration's decision to restrict his access to cover the White House.

 

In the ruling, Judge Kelly said that the administration could not say who initially decided to revoke Acosta’s hard pass, and the administration's reasoning for revoking the pass “were hardly sufficient to satisfy due process.” The judge's ruling paves a pathway for CNN to prevail in their other claims surrounding the lawsuit, which are expected to be decided upon at a later date.