Judge orders White House to reinstate Jim Acosta’s press pass

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the White House had to return press credentials to CNN’s Jim Acosta — at least temporarily — rebuking President Trump’s decision to yank them after a contentious press conference.

Washington, DC, Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued his ruling after hearing nearly two hours of oral arguments about CNN’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Wednesday.

The judge emphasized that his decision was based on the Fifth Amendment since Acosta was denied his right to due process — and not on the question of whether the White house can bar reporters from the grounds.

“If at some point after restoring the hard pass the government would like to move to vacate the restraining order on the grounds that it has fulfilled its due process obligations, then it may, of course, do so and I will promptly address that and then the remaining basis of the (temporary restraining order),” Kelly said.

Kelly also suggested that the White House was not fully forthcoming in its explanation for the move — or who was behind it.

“Whatever process occurred within the government is still so shrouded in mystery that the government could not tell me at oral argument who made the initial decision to revoke Mr. Acosta’s press pass,” Kelly said.

Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump had the authority to pull any member of the media’s credentials for any reason he chose.

But the network — which was backed by Fox News and numerous other media outlets — argued that yanking Acosta’s pass infringed on his First Amendment rights.

“Let’s go back to work,” Acosta told reporters after the hearing.

CNN said in a statement it “looked forward to a full resolution in the coming days” and thanked “all who have supported not just CNN, but a free, strong and independent American press.”

The White House revoked Acosta’s credentials last week in an escalation of the president’s attacks on the news media, which he has dubbed “fake news” and the “enemy of the American people.”

In court, government lawyers said there was no First Amendment right of access to the White House and that Acosta was penalized for acting rudely at the conference and not for his criticisms of the president.

The White House argued in a statement that its position was vindicated.

“Today the court made clear that there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House. In response to the court, we will temporarily reinstate the reporter’s hard pass. We will also further develop rules and processes to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future. There must be decorum at the White House,” administration spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

The White House story about why Acosta’s pass was pulled shifted from the time it was yanked to the time the administration filed court papers.

At first, Sanders said Acosta had inappropriate contact with a female intern as she tried to grab the mic from his hand while he verbally sparred with the president, who heaped abuse on the CNN reporter during the incident.

“I’ll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them,” Trump angrily told Acosta.

“You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”

Sanders released an altered video that sped up the interaction, making it appear that Acosta’s action was more aggressive than other, unaltered video showed.

Later, the president’s lawyers said the action was taken because Acosta was rude to the president and would not surrender the mic, which he eventually did.

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