A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the White House press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
US District Court Judge Timothy Kelly, an appointee of President Donald Trump, announced his decision after a hearing in Washington, saying Mr Acosta’s credentials would be returned immediately and reactivated to allow him access to the White House.
CNN had asked the judge to force the White House to immediately hand back the credentials that give Mr Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, access to the White House complex for press briefings and other events.
The White House said it would comply with the order, but planned to develop “rules” for orderly press conferences.
CNN asked for Mr Acosta’s credentials to be restored while a lawsuit over their revocation goes forward. The suit that his First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated when the White House revoked his credentials
Mr Acosta thanked the judge and fellow reporters who supported him, adding: “Let’s go back to work!”
The White House pulled his credentials after he and the president tangled during a press conference last week.
The judge said the government could not say who initially decided to revoke Mr Acosta’s pass.
The White House had spelled out its reasons for revoking his credentials in a tweet from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and in a statement after CNN filed its lawsuit, but the judge said those “belated efforts were hardly sufficient to satisfy due process”.
The judge also found that Mr Acosta suffered “irreparable harm”, dismissing the government’s argument that CNN could send other reporters to cover the White House in his place.
Judge Kelly told lawyers to file additional court papers in the case by Monday.
Mr Trump has made his dislike of CNN clear since before he took office and continuing into his presidency. He has described the network as “fake news”.
At last week’s press conference, which followed the midterm elections, he was taking questions from reporters and called on Mr Acosta, who asked about Mr Trump’s statements about a caravan of migrants making its way to the US-Mexico border.
After a terse exchange, Mr Trump told him, “That’s enough”, several times while calling on another reporter.
Mr Acosta attempted to ask another question about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and initially declined to give up a hand-held microphone to a White House intern.
Mr Trump responded by saying he was not concerned about the investigation, calling it a “hoax”, and then criticised Mr Acosta, calling him a “rude, terrible person”.
The White House pulled his credentials hours later.
The White House’s explanation for why it seized his credentials have shifted over the last week.
Ms Sanders initially explained the decision by accusing Mr Acosta of making improper physical contact with the intern seeking to grab the microphone.
But that rationale disappeared after witnesses backed Mr Acosta’s account that he was just trying to keep the microphone, and Ms Sanders distributed a doctored video that made it appear he was more aggressive than he actually was.
On Tuesday, she accused Mr Acosta of being unprofessional by trying to dominate questioning at the news conference.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel