CNN Turns Up Heat on Trump With Bombshell Threat
The network has set a deadline for the president to comply with a judge’s ruling.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
CNN has threatened President Donald Trump with more legal action if he continues to block the network’s journalists from Air Force One and the Oval Office.
CNN attorney Theodore Boutrous writes in a new letter to the Justice Department that his ban illegally interferes with the network’s ability to fulfill its pool duties. He gave Trump until 5 p.m. Thursday to restore access before the network takes new legal action.
CNN reporters were blocked from traveling with the president on Air Force One on his trip to Tennessee on Sept. 26.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“These efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” Boutrous writes in a letter first obtained by The Washington Sun. “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.”
Last month, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed a joint lawsuit against the Trump administration after it banned their reporters from entering White House grounds.
A judge issued a temporary injunction in favor of the news outlets, but the White House has continued to exclude CNN’s journalists from traveling with the president on Air Force One.
CNN joined the White House’s rotating television press pool in 1981. Since then, Boutrous said, it has had “uninterrupted access” to the Oval Office and Air Force One—until now.
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“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,” he wrote.
Trump has been traveling across the country to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of November's midterms.
Evan Vucci/REUTERS/Evan Vucci
The letter says CNN has been denied access to Air Force One four times, with no advance notice or explanation provided.
The White House has given no indication it plans to honor Boutrous’s demand.
“No person and no journalist has a constitutional right to access to the President’s Oval Office, Air Force One, or other sensitive and private facilities,” the White House told the Daily Beast in a statement. “When publications lie, fabricate, and ignore the truth, proximity matters less, and they can write their fiction from outside of these secure facilities.”
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