CNN has told the White House it will go back to court unless officials stop keeping its crews off Air Force One. The network’s lawyer set a deadline of 5 p.m. ET Thursday for written confirmation that the policy will end. Attorney Ted Boutrous made the demand in a letter to the Justice Department, which CNN’s Brian Stelter reported on Tuesday.
How CNN’s latest legal warning affects the White House press pool
The lawyer argued that the exclusions punish the network for its journalism and called them “mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful.” The letter came a week after a federal judge stopped Donald Trump’s administration from reinstating its ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. All three outlets can enter White House grounds again. The ruling, however, does not address seats in the presidential press pool, and that is where CNN says the conflict continues.
According to Boutrous, the White House has kept CNN off the plane at least four times, although the network was the scheduled TV pool outlet on each occasion. Those trips included Trump’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, a football game in Knoxville, Tennessee, a tour of Texas and Oklahoma, and a trip this month to Georgia and Florida. The White House has given no explanation, the letter says. Boutrous added that officials have not even told CNN directly that it is shut out of the Oval Office or Air Force One.
The pool works on rotation. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox take turns covering the president and share the footage. However, a White House official told TheWrap that journalists have no claim to these spaces. “No person and no journalist have a constitutional right to access to the President’s Oval Office, Air Force One, or other sensitive and private facilities,” the official said.
Boutrous answered with numbers. His letter says Trump has taken more than 4,700 questions in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, and on the tarmac during his second term, compared with roughly 150 in the briefing room. He argued that reporters in those settings act as stand-ins for the public. Trump announced the ban on September 18, and the affected reporters found their passes deactivated the following day.
