CNN and MS Now journalists denied access to White House state dinner despite court ruling

Journalists for CNN and MS Now were denied access to the White House state dinner in honor of Xi Jinping, China’s president, on Thursday evening, hours after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration must allow them in after imposing a ban last week.

“About an hour before Xi’s arrival was scheduled, the White House said CNN could cover the event, but only with a photojournalist and audio technician, notably excluding the network’s editorial team consisting of a reporter and producer,” CNN reported.

MS Now, another outlet banned from the White House by Trump last week for what he calls overly negative coverage of his presidency, also said its White House reporter, Laura Barrón-López, was prevented from covering Xi’s arrival for the state dinner despite applying for credentials to cover the event. When Barrón-López asked a White House staffer why she was denied access, the staffer said she should “talk to Steven”, apparently meaning White House communications director Steven Cheung, MS Now reported.

Xi’s arrival for the dinner, with his wife, Peng Liyuan, was streamed live on YouTube by the White House, but none of the major US networks provided live broadcast video of the event in solidarity with CNN, a member of the broadcast pool.

Earlier on Thursday, journalists for CNN, MS Now and Politico, which was also part of the ban issued last week, were finally granted access to the White House after days of being barred from the building.

Earlier attempts by the journalists to enter the building had been unsuccessful, and lawyers representing the three organizations had told a judge that the White House has already “repeatedly violated” his overnight order requiring the Trump administration to return the press badges of journalists from the three news organizations.

Timothy Kelly, the US district judge who appeared skeptical of arguments from lawyers representing the White House during a hearing on Wednesday, issued an early morning order forcing the administration to return access for a 14-day period.

But journalists from the three affected networks reported being barred from the building, with some having their badges taken for the first time.

“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,” lawyers for the three news organizations wrote in a brief requesting a video or telephone conference “as soon as possible this morning”.

In a legal filing on Thursday afternoon, Micah Stopperich, the White House director of press operations, said in a sworn statement that the operations team was notified at 7.10am to restore access, and that it began reinstating badges at 7.25am. She said that US Secret Service indicated that badges were re-activated as of 9.07am, and that confiscated badges were dropped off at the entry to the building just before 10am.

“United States Secret Service has represented that press passes that were turned on were available for pick up at the press gate as soon as they were delivered,” she said.

The badges were revoked on Saturday, after the president abruptly ordered the three outlets to be banned over “their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS”. The outlets swiftly sued over the move, which sparked widespread criticism from other news organizations and press freedom advocates.