Media outlets say White House will impose a ‘complete ban’ if Trump wins legal battle

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Donald Trump’s words and actions “leave little doubt” that the president will try to “immediately” impose a “complete ban” of three press outlets from White House unless a federal judge intervenes, according to their lawyers.

Last week, a judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring the Trump administration to restore White House press passes for CNN, MS NOW and Politico after the president announced he was “banning” them from coverage and stripped their credentials.

But the White House has “persisted in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing its ban,” the lawyers said, despite the court order, including by barring CNN from serving as the designated White House video pool provider — two days after the judge’s order.

“The White House’s words and actions leave little doubt that it will immediately reinstitute a complete ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico if allowed the opportunity,” lawyers wrote in court filings Monday night.

The administration’s attempts to justify the ban, days after implementing it, are merely “weapons for the arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement that due process forbids,” lawyers wrote.

Those after-the-fact letters “are similarly vague, arbitrary, and content-based,” they argued.

Trump and the Department of Justice have accused the outlets of endangering national security by reporting sensitive and classified information that the president has also called “fake news” that is “negative, wrong and, in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country.”

In letters to the outlets on September 22, several days after the ban, the White House Press Office accused the outlets of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security” and “publishing sensitive or classified information.”

Each letter cited several offending stories, some of which were several months or more than a year old, that have “threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods.”

They included stories in which administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, were the sources. The stories included reporting on the U.S. military, including depleting munitions during the Iran war, the Trump administration's responsibility for a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school, and reduced troop presence in the Pacific and Europe.

At least two stories deal with Trump’s plans for a ballroom and military complex at the site of the now-demolished East Wing of the White House — information that the president and administration officials have detailed themselves in court filings.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly raged against “fake news” throughout the legal battle — never once mentioning “national security,” lawyers for the outlets noted.

“His statements also make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from newsgathering and reporting that the President might view as negative,” they wrote Monday.

The president continues to “retaliate” against the outlets despite last week’s restraining order, “only underscoring that Defendants’ motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike.”

In an order that arrived around 1 a.m. September 24, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected the government’s arguments that the president’s ban was motivated by national security concerns.

His order required the White House to reinstate the outlets’ credentials and restore their access to the White House grounds, but it did not explicitly address their participation in the pool coverage.

Reporters from the three outlets were denied entry to the White House on the morning of September 24 despite Kelly’s order.

Those reporters were allowed inside White House grounds around noon — just before the judge’s 12:30 p.m. deadline for the Trump administration to respond to an urgent request for an emergency court hearing.

On September 25, CNN learned that it would not be permitted to travel aboard Air Force One as the designated television network pooler for the president’s trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, according to lawyers.

“CNN received no official communication from the White House explaining its exclusion,” they wrote. “Because CNN was excluded and no replacement designated, no primary television network pooler accompanied the President on the trip. CNN is presently scheduled to serve as the designated television network pooler on October 1.”

A White House scheduling email sent on Sunday indicated that CNN will be able to fill its scheduled slot on Thursday.

Judge Kelly’s restraining order is set to expire October 8.

Unless he issues a preliminary injunction, which will last through the duration of the legal battle, harms against the press “will quickly compound,” lawyers wrote.