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By Matthew Robinson, Billal Rahman, Dan Gooding, and Leonardo Feldman
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Minutes before a looming court deadline, reporters who were initially denied entry to the White House Thursday, despite a judge ordering President Donald Trump's administration to immediately restore their access, returned to their media tents.
The White House had banned journalists from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from entering the complex last week after Trump accused them of "fake news," and later argued that their reporting was a risk to national security.
After U.S. District Judge Timothy James Kelly issued a temporary restraining order early Thursday preventing officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days while a legal challenge by the news outlets proceeds, journalists from all three outlets reported being denied access when attempting to enter the White House Thursday morning.
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Media organizations asked Kelly to intervene, and he ordered the administration to respond by 12:30 p.m. ET to the outlets’ filings that the court order had not been followed.
Newsweek White House reporter Leonardo Feldman said that the ABC crew was refusing to take over the White House TV pool duties while CNN remained excluded, adding to the growing pushback from other news organizations over the ban.
At around noon ET, 30 minutes before the court's deadline, MS NOW and CNN reporters returned to their positions.
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After the reporters returned to the White House, some coverage resumed, but Trump took to Truth Social Thursday evening to attack CNN and MS NOW once again.
"CNN and MSDNC’s Ratings have dropped considerably. The primary reason is NO CREDIBILITY!" he posted, arguing they only "write badly" about him.
"CNN and MSDNC, to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the Highly Respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng," Trump said.
During the time when the Chinese President was arriving, CNN, Politico, and MS NOW reporters still did not have access to the White House.
"The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to “TRUMP,” they refused to be there," the president posted. "That’s why they have such poor Ratings."
Earlier, Trump said the Chinese had the friendlies press corps, per the White House press pool reporter.
CNN, Politico, MS NOW Were Still Barred From White House
Earlier Thursday, CNN said that its reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were denied access despite multiple attempts, and that no reason was provided. Politico and MS NOW also reported that their reporters were denied access.
MS NOW reporter Laura Barrón-López said: "I made it past the first perimeter fencing that has Secret Service... then I went to the press pass security hut and again made it through the gate."
But she added that when she placed her press badge on a pin pad, it repeatedly flashed red, and that a member of the Secret Service told her it was still disabled, before later confiscating it.
"It's not clear based on the interaction I had whether or not this is a defiance of the court order, or it's some kind of incompetence or lag in the system," she said.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment by email.
Calls for an Emergency Hearing
The news organizations subsequently asked for an immediate court hearing to address the continued ban on the journalists.
"This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO attempted to enter the White House and were turned away, and Secret Service agents confiscated the hard pass of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated," the outlets wrote in an emergency request to the court on Thursday.
"And when Plaintiff Betsy Klein, whose hard pass was confiscated on Saturday, September 19, requested to have her hard pass returned, her request was denied and she was refused access to the White House complex."
They added: "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."
Kelly then set the 12:30 p.m. deadline for the White House to respond.
Responding to the judge, White House Communications Director of Press Operations Micah Stopperich wrote in an early afternoon court filing that White House Operations was told to restore access at 7:10 a.m. ET. That process began 15 minutes later, he wrote, with the U.S. Secret Service stating the badges were back online by 9:07 a.m., with confiscated badges then located and returned to reporters.
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Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Newsweek about Judge Kelly's ruling: "The administration was rightly given the back of the hand by Judge Kelly for claiming routine reports harm 'national security,' but court orders are just paper unless they're enforced. Enough is enough. Government officials who continue to deny journalists' access to the White House in defiance of Kelly’s order should be held in contempt.
"And it's long past time for judges to start aggressively sanctioning DOJ lawyers when they make frivolous national security arguments to turn Trump's petty grievances against the press into government policy. That way, we won't get to the point where Secret Service agents are defying court orders to carry out the president’s authoritarian whims."
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins wrote on X that Chinese state-media journalists were present for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit.
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What Reasons Were Given for the Ban?
In a letter defending the decision, the White House accused Politico of violating professional standards by relying on anonymous sources and publishing sensitive or classified information. But one of the examples cited involved a June report based on a press call organized by the White House itself, during which reporters were explicitly instructed to attribute the information to a “senior administration official.”
The official said the chances of a preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran were around 80 to 85 percent.
The Washington Post reported that the White House had established the anonymity terms for the call, and that other news organizations, including the Associated Press, Bloomberg and CNBC, also reported information from the briefing without facing the same ban.
Status reported that Vice President JD Vance was the anonymous “senior administration official” behind a June Politico story that the White House later cited as one of the reports supporting its decision to revoke the outlet’s press access. According to Status, Vance provided the information during a White House-authorized background briefing.
"Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on September 18.
The outlets’ lawsuit accused the Trump administration of violating their First and Fifth Amendment rights by targeting them over their editorial viewpoints. Judge Timothy Kelly said the record did not support the White House’s later national-security justification, noting that Trump initially focused instead on criticism of the outlets’ reporting.
CNN Says Reporters Denied Access to Xi's State Dinner arrival
CNN reported that two of its journalists were denied access to Xi's arrival back to the White House for a state dinner Thursday night. The outlet added that the White House attempted to tell CNN what type of journalists could report on the event. MS Now reporters were also reportedly denied access, CNN says.
The White House's Rapid Response account on X responded to posts about the incident, saying, "This is a pre-credentialed event. Contrary to what the Fake News wants you to believe, they don’t just get to have free rein into every part of the White House, every event, and every press call."
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly also told Newsweek Thursday night, “Foreign leaders are always granted a press pool when they visit the White House.”
What Happens Next
The three outlets now have until Monday to file a motion for a preliminary injunction against the ban, with the government given until October 2 to respond. The initial restraining order will lapse early the following week.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson, Gray R. Thomas, Anna Commander and Edward T. Cummins.
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