Arguments Over White House Media Access

By Andrew Goudsward and Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s administration argued on Thursday that Trump has broad authority over media access to the White House and asked a U.S. federal appeals court to keep a judge from lifting restrictions the White House imposed on the Associated Press.

Justice Department lawyer Eric McArthur asserted that a lower-court ruling mandating that AP journalists be granted access to press events in the White House infringes on the president’s ability to decide whom to admit to sensitive spaces. The White House has asked to put the ruling on hold while it appeals.

The White House began limiting AP’s access to Trump in February after the news agency said it would continue using the name Gulf of Mexico while acknowledging Trump’s order to change the name of the body of water to the Gulf of America.

Arguing before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, McArthur said Trump would be acting lawfully even “if he wanted to reconstitute the press pool as his 20 favorite reporters.”

Judges on the panel quizzed McArthur and a lawyer for the AP, Charles Tobin, about the scope of U.S. constitutional protections for news gathering and whether a ruling for the AP could improperly force judges to question motivations of senior White House aides and the president himself.

“I am worried about that,” said Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, appointed by the Republican Trump during his first term.

Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard, appointed by Democratic then-President Barack Obama, cited the tradition of the White House press pool, noting how reporters had close observational access to controversies involving former Presidents Richard Nixon, a Republican, and Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

The case has become a flashpoint in Trump’s relationship with the news media as the White House seeks to exert greater control over who gets to ask Trump questions and report on his statements in real time.

Lawyers for the AP accused the White House on Wednesday of defying the court order by continuing to exclude its journalists from some events and then limiting access for all news wires, including Reuters and Bloomberg, to Trump.

The White House has argued the AP does not have a right to what the administration has called special access to the president.

The April 8 ruling by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, appointed by Trump during his first term, temporarily ordered the administration to allow AP journalists to attend events open to similar types of news organizations in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, as well as in larger spaces in the White House while its lawsuit moves forward.

Since McFadden’s ruling, AP text reporters have not been allowed into the Oval Office though they have been allowed into some larger events with Trump. AP photographers have been readmitted to the Oval Office.

The AP sued three top Trump aides, alleging the restrictions were an attempt to coerce the news media into using the government’s preferred language and had hampered its ability to cover Trump.

McFadden found the measures retaliated against the AP over its coverage choices, likely violating free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution.

The three-judge panel that heard the White House request on Thursday afternoon included Pillard, Katsas, and another judge Trump appointed during his first term, Neomi Rao.

The AP alleged, and McFadden agreed, that the White House singled out the AP because it publishes an influential stylebook, which sets the language and grammar standards used by many U.S. news organizations.

The AP says in its stylebook that the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years and, as a global news agency, the AP will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.