Judge says ruling on CNN lawsuit will come on Thursday

A dispute over the press credentials of CNN’s chief White House correspondent has escalated into a potentially significant legal showdown over journalists’ rights.

The cable network and the Trump administration faced aggressive questions from a federal judge in Washington today, as lawyers argued over a lawsuit brought by CNN to reinstate the press pass of the correspondent, Jim Acosta. His credentials were revoked last week after a testy exchange with President Donald Trump.

Much of the debate revolved around whether the White House had retaliated against Acosta for his critical coverage, which CNN said amounted to a violation of his First Amendment and due process rights. Lawyers for the Justice Department argued that Trump had discretion to choose the reporters who cover his events at the White House.

The judge, Timothy J. Kelly, who was appointed by Trump last year, said he would announce a decision on whether to reinstate Acosta’s credential on Thursday afternoon.

Before today’s hearing, major news organizations issued a joint statement of support for CNN’s legal action, calling it “imperative that independent journalists have access to the president and his activities, and that journalists are not barred for arbitrary reasons.” Among the signatories were The Associated Press, Bloomberg, NBC, The New York Times, Politico and The Washington Post. ABC, CBS and The Wall Street Journal sent supportive statements as well.

Fox News, Trump’s preferred news network, also released its own remarks in favor of CNN’s lawsuit and said it would file an amicus brief in the case.

“While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the president and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people,” Jay Wallace, Fox News’ president, wrote.

Trump, asked about the suit today in an interview with The Daily Caller, said that “guys like Acosta” are “bad for the country.”

“He doesn’t even know what he’s asking you half of the time,” Trump said, adding, “Is it freedom of the press when somebody comes in and starts screaming questions and won’t sit down?”

CNN’s lawsuit is perhaps the most aggressive action yet by a news organization against Trump — who has popularized terms like “fake news” and “enemy of the people” to denigrate journalists and dismiss critical coverage — since he took office.

Although the suit is narrowly concerned with Acosta’s credentials, press advocates say the outcome could set a precedent for a president’s broader ability to select which journalists are granted access to the White House.

CNN’s lead lawyer, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., zeroed in on that point at today’s hearing. “‘Rudeness’ is a code word for ‘I don’t like you being an aggressive reporter,’” he said. “The president doesn’t have the right to choose who CNN sends to the White House.”

In taking away Acosta’s press pass, the president’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, initially cited a false claim that he had placed his hands on a White House intern who tried to take away his microphone at the news conference. Sanders later revised the rationale to cite Acosta’s behavior, which she deemed disrespectful.

Kelly pressed James Burnham, the Justice Department lawyer representing the administration, about the shifting rationale, asking, “You have no position on the accuracy of that statement?” Burnham replied that he did not, calling Sanders’ claim legally irrelevant and no longer the “operating rationale” in the case.

Instead, Burnham contended that Acosta had lost his press pass because of his behavior at last week’s news conference, not because of the nature of his reporting. The lawyer noted that dozens of other CNN journalists still had their credentials.

Boutrous said Trump “is the most aggressive, dare I say rudest, person in the room,” adding, “He encourages that kind of rough-and-tumble discussion.”

“Knowing Trump, he’ll probably call on Mr. Acosta the day he gets his press pass,” Boutrous said.

In a response filed today, lawyers for the Trump administration referred to an incident in which Acosta “disrupted the fair and orderly administration of a press conference during an exchange with the president.”

“Plaintiffs have not established that the public interest is uniquely harmed by Mr. Acosta’s absence, in light of the other tenacious reporters still on the White House beat,” the lawyers wrote, noting that dozens of other CNN journalists have retained their credentials.

Acosta has a reputation as a showboat among some of his press corps colleagues, and he has clashed several times with Trump since the president took office. The correspondent attended today’s hearing, which drew a long line of attendees to the courthouse hallways. One protester shouted at Acosta, saying he “should be lawfully hung.” Others expressed support.

Some allies of Trump have seized on CNN’s lawsuit as evidence that the network is biased, as the president frequently claims. A fundraising email that his political team sent today — with the subject line “CNN SUES! Help Trump win” — referred to Acosta’s “continuous grandstanding.”

“President Trump will NOT put up with the media’s liberal bias and utter disrespect,” the email declared.