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Despite President Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico at the White House, First Lady Melania Trump’s office cleared CNN and Politico reporters to cover her event at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
Getting into it: Trump announced the ban Friday on Truth Social, accusing the three outlets of spreading “FAKE NEWS,” and Secret Service agents took CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein’s press pass at a White House checkpoint. Her office signed off on Klein’s credential Sunday evening, a day after the ban took effect, for Tuesday’s “Fostering the Future Together” event. There, Melania announced new partnerships with Amazon, Intel and Google and urged other countries to put children first in AI development, hours after her husband brushed off calls for global AI rules in his own UN speech. A source told CNN that the first lady knew about the ban and that her office had the final say on credentials for her event.
The three outlets have since sued Trump over the ban on First Amendment grounds, asking a federal judge to order their access restored while the case plays out. The Justice Department responded to the lawsuit late Tuesday night, citing stories from each outlet on the Iran war, low US munitions stockpiles and a leak investigation tied to FBI Director Kash Patel, along with a Politico story on a Secret Service handout Senate Republicans received about the new White House ballroom.
“The President determined that Plaintiffs have failed to maintain minimum professional journalistic standards by publishing classified and national security information,” the brief says.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee who sided with CNN’s Jim Acosta in a 2018 fight over his revoked press pass, heard arguments in the case Wednesday afternoon. He has not ruled yet, but noted that the White House failed to follow proper process before revoking the outlet’s access.
