Updated: March 2, 2021
A U.S. federal judge in Washington D.C. on Friday ordered President Donald Trump‘s White House to immediately restore the press credentials of CNN White House chief correspondent Jim Acosta.
The decision in favor of CNN represents “the first legal blows between Trump and the news media”, NPR said.
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The White House revoked Acosta’s credentials last week after a combative press conference with President Trump.
As Acosta challenged Trump on falsehoods he was spreading over a caravan of migrants thousands of miles way, he was ordered to hand the microphone over to an intern, which he did not do immediately. He continued to question the President.
Hours later, the White House revoked his hard pass, claiming that he had assaulted the intern. The White House then shared a doctored video to justify its decision.
But on Friday, Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered the White House to restore Acosta’s press credentials.
“Each day he [Acosta] is deprived … suffers a harm that cannot be remedied in retrospect,” Kelly said, according to NPR.
The decision is not the end of the road in this fight. The judge told attorneys for the Trump administration that the White House has to establish standardized rules to justify taking away a pass to cover the White House and wants to hear from both sides again Tuesday.
This was also granted on a limited basis and was not on First Amendment ground, but the Fifth Amendment’s right to due process. The judge said the White House denied Acosta’s right to due process under the law.
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