White House tells buttwipe Acosta his press pass will be suspended again when order expires, CNN says

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/19/white-house-tells-acosta-
his-press-pass-will-be-suspended-again-when-order-expires-cnn-
says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.08e96142893c

White House officials have reportedly sent a letter to CNN’s Jim Acosta
indicating they will suspend his press pass again once the temporary
restraining order that required them to restore Acosta’s credentials
expires, CNN reported late Sunday night. The 14-day order was issued
Friday and unless the judge extends it would expire at the end of the
month.

In a ruling seen as a victory for press freedom, U.S. District Judge
Timothy J. Kelly, appointed by President Trump, ordered the White House to
temporarily restore Acosta’s press pass on Friday while he considers the
merits of the case and the possibility of a permanent order.

He said the White House has an obligation to afford due process to Acosta
before it can revoke or suspend his access, and found that the White
House’s decision-making process in this case was “so shrouded in mystery
that the government could not tell me .?.?. who made the decision.”

But on Sunday night, CNN’s Brian Stelter of “Reliable Sources” said in his
newsletter that “White House officials sent Acosta a letter stating that
his pass is set to be suspended again once the restraining order expires.”

Stelter did not report the text of the letter or say whether it came only
to Acosta or was submitted to the judge in the case. It was unclear
whether the White House provided reasons that would somehow pass for due
process in the eyes of the judge or a chance for Acosta to respond. The
parties are expected to file status reports Monday explaining how they
would like to proceed.

“The White House is continuing to violate the First and 5th Amendments of
the Constitution,” CNN said in a statement. “These actions threaten all
journalists and news organizations. Jim Acosta and CNN will continue to
report the news about the White House and the President.”

CNN and Acosta, the network’s chief White House correspondent, sued the
White House and press secretary Sarah Sanders last week after they
suspended his press credentials following Acosta’s minor altercation with
a White House press aide, who tried to take a microphone out of his hands
as he questioned the president.

Sanders accused Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman” when
explaining why Acosta’s pass had been suspended, but Kelly found that this
allegation was “likely untrue.”

In defending the White House’s decision to suspend Acosta’s press pass,
Justice Department lawyers argued that it was not an infringement on the
First Amendment because CNN had plenty of other White House reporters who
are “more than capable of covering the White House complex on CNN’s
behalf,” and Acosta himself could still “practice his profession and
report on the White House” — just not at the White House.

Kelly agreed that access to the White House grounds is not a First
Amendment right. But he also found that a reporter’s “First Amendment
liberty interest in a White House press pass” is also protected by the
Fifth Amendment’s due process guarantees, as The Washington Post’s Erik
Wemple previously reported. In other words, the White House can’t just
revoke a reporter’s press pass for no good reason.

In deciding whether barring Acosta amounted to “irreparable harm,” a
standard for granting temporary restraining orders, Kelly pointed to the
case of journalist Robert Sherrill, who fought the White House’s denial of
his press pass in 1977 and also won the right to due process and a
restoration of his pass.

“The First Amendment interests as recognized in Sherrill were not vested
merely in publications or agencies; they were liberties of the individual
journalists themselves,” Kelly said, as excerpted by Wemple. “For that
reason, that CNN may still send another journalist or journalists to the
White House does not make the harm to Mr. Acosta any less irreparable.
.?.?. It’s a harm that cannot be remedied in retrospect. .?.?. So on this
highly, highly unusual set of facts and interests at stake, I do find that
the plaintiffs have met their burden of establishing that irreparable harm
has and will continue to occur in the absence of [remedy].”

Ted Boutrous, an attorney for CNN and Acosta, told Stelter on “Reliable
Sources” that in the absence of reaching an agreement with the White
House, they plan to seek a preliminary injunction blocking the White House
from suspending Acosta’s credentials for a much longer period of time as
the case moves forward.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.