CNN, Politico and MS NOW Restored to White House After Judge's Order

CNN, Politico and MS NOW were allowed back into the White House on Thursday, six days after President Donald Trump barred the outlets, after a federal judge ordered their press credentials restored, AFP and Reuters reported.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled overnight that revoking the three organizations’ hard passes “likely violated their constitutional due process rights,” AFP reported. Kelly, a Trump appointee from the president’s first term, issued a 14-day temporary restraining order that reinstates access while the outlets’ lawsuit continues.

Reporters who tried to re-enter early Thursday ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit were initially turned away by the Secret Service and were allowed in later around midday, according to AFP. Colleagues from other outlets gathered around CNN’s driveway tent and filmed correspondent Betsy Klein as she reported live after her return, with several journalists calling out “welcome back.”

The restoration does not close the case. Reuters reported that Kelly has not yet ruled on the outlets’ First Amendment free-speech and free-press claim, finding the due-process argument alone sufficient for the temporary order. He set a September 28 deadline for the plaintiffs to seek a preliminary injunction that could keep the ban blocked for the duration of the litigation.

Trump announced the ban Friday on his social platform, saying the three organizations should not be able to “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” about the president. The Justice Department later framed the dispute around national security, citing coverage of missile stockpiles, White House ballroom construction and related reporting, Reuters noted. Kelly wrote that he was skeptical, on the current record, that safeguarding national security was the actual motivation for revoking the passes, AFP reported.

Even after midday re-entry, CNN reported later Thursday that two of its journalists were denied coverage of Xi’s arrival back at the White House for a state dinner, and that MS NOW journalists were also kept from that arrival, AFP said. The episode underscored how credential fights can continue at the edge of restored access.

Attorney Theodore Boutrous, representing the media outlets, has warned that a due-process-only ruling could leave room for the administration to attempt a more formalized revocation later. In a Thursday interview with MS NOW cited by Reuters, Boutrous said First Amendment arguments “will come front and center” in coming weeks and that he expects the government to try to shore up its national-security rationale.

Before the ruling, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC said they were suspending White House television pool coverage in solidarity with CNN, arguing that no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting, AFP reported. The White House Correspondents’ Association and dozens of news organizations had also urged the bans to be reversed.

For readers tracking Washington media fights on Daily News, Thursday’s reopen restores hard-pass access for now but leaves the deeper constitutional fight unresolved inside a two-week window. Related coverage of the earlier restraining order remains on the site’s judge-blocks-ban report, which detailed Kelly’s overnight decision before the outlets physically returned.

Kelly’s overnight order tracked the same due-process logic he used in earlier White House credential fights, Reuters noted, including the 2018 dispute over a CNN correspondent’s pass during Trump’s first term. Then, after a preliminary decision favored the journalist, the White House restored access and the case was dropped. Boutrous and the outlets are treating Thursday’s compliance as necessary but incomplete, precisely because Kelly left the First Amendment claim for later briefing.

The timing collided with high-visibility diplomacy. Xi’s Washington visit put camera positions, driveway tents and arrival coverage under unusual scrutiny, which is why the midday restoration and the later arrival denials both mattered to the press corps. AFP’s account of colleagues filming Klein’s return captured the solidarity that had already shown up in the broadcasters’ pool boycott — a rare alignment across competing networks.

If Kelly converts the temporary order into a preliminary injunction, the administration could ask a federal appeals court in Washington to lift it, Reuters reported. Trump had already vowed an appeal before Kelly ruled. Whether Thursday’s welcome-back becomes a lasting reset, or another round of process-heavy confrontation over who may cover the presidency from inside the complex, will turn on the September 28 injunction deadline and whatever arguments the Justice Department advances next.