(Bloomberg) -- The Trump Administration denied CNN’s legal claims that revoking the White House press pass of correspondent Jim Acosta violated his First Amendment rights to report freely on the government.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department filed a response Wednesday to CNN’s lawsuit hours ahead of a hearing in federal court in Washington, where the network sued Trump and top aides over the decision to pull Acosta’s credentials after he clashed with the president at a Nov. 7 news conference.
The filing ratchets up the dispute between the news media and Trump, who has repeatedly denigrated reporters who question his actions, focusing his ire on CNN. The network said Trump engaged in an “unabashed attempt to censor the press” by banning Acosta, who has gained notoriety for his aggressive questioning of the president.
Fox News President Jay Wallace said Wednesday his network supports CNN in its legal effort to regain Acosta’s credentials and will file court documents opposing the Trump administration’s decision.
In its lawsuit CNN claimed that Trump’s administration violated Acosta’s due process rights by revoking his press credentials without warning and false claims that he placed his hands on a White House intern who tried to take his microphone during the news conference.
CNN’s lawsuit threatens to throw its owner, AT&T, and the Trump administration back in court just months after the two sides squared off before a judge over whether AT&T can buy Time Warner Inc. AT&T won the case, though the Justice Department has appealed the decision.
The case is Cable News Network Inc. v. Donald J. Trump, 18-cv-2610, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net;David Voreacos in New York at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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