Judge Rules White House Must Reinstate CNN’s Jim Acosta’s ‘Hard Pass’
After Trump and his administration revoked Jim Acosta’s ‘hard pass’, after a heated exchange between the President and CNN’s Acosta at a White House press conference last week, a Trump appointed federal Judge, Timothy J Kelly, has ruled that The White House must ‘temporarily’ reinstate Acosta’s press pass.
The case has not been decided overall, however, judge Kelly did say that he believes that CNN and Acosta are likely to prevail in the case overall. From what I understand. it comes down to due process not being followed, with The White House arbitrarily revoking Acosta’s hard pass without due process, infringing his fifth amendment rights. Judge Kelly did expand on his comments, saying that The White House could revoke Acosta’s hard pass again, if it followed due process rules, which I believe to be very unlikely.
Judge Kelly criticized The White House’s actions, saying it was shrouded in mystery, as the Justice Department’s lawyer could not even tell the court who ordered the revocation of Acosta’s hard pass. Judge Kelly went onto say that he was not making a judgment on the claim that Acosta’s first amendment rights were infringed. WH press secretary Sarah Sanders wrote in a statement, “today, the court made clear that there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House.”, which is yet another lie.
Sarah Sanders, who claimed that Acosta’s hard pass was revoked because he inappropriately touched a White House intern, backed up by a video that had been doctored, by an Infowars staffer, to make the accidental contact between Acosta and the intern look more malicious, which you might call ‘fake news’, Judge Kelly, noted was “likely, untrue” and “partly based on evidence of questionable accuracy”.
As a reaction to the ruling, Sarah Sanders wrote “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” in a statement from The White House. The question I immediately ask is, will these new rules, also apply to the president and his staff? Trump is not known for decorum or being orderly, Donald J Trump’s belittling of the press, especially non-white reporters, in the White House definitely lacks decorum and order.
CNN would like to avoid further litigation and work out a deal out of court, which is more than likely the ultimate outcome. I’m pretty sure The White House would prefer to not have a long drawn out court battle, that they are likely to lose on fifth amendment grounds, if not a violation of the first amendment.
I have to admit when I saw that a Trump appointed judge was going to be overseeing the case, I thought it would not go well for Acosta, so I applaud Judge Kelly for following the letter of the law, and ruling in favor of the complainant, granting the temporary restraining order in regard to Acosta’s pass revocation.
I would personally love to see Acosta go after Sanders and the Trump administration for defamation, with their suggestion that the CNN reporter had inappropriately touched an intern, using a clearly doctored video, making Acosta out to be a Kung-Fu master with the alleged karate chop on the intern’s arm.
This is a victory for the much-maligned press, who Trump labels ‘fake news’ at every opportunity when they show the president in a bad light in their reporting. These reports are 100% justified and in no way, fake news, much of the right-wing media, who Trump likes, are actually guilty of pushing fake news.
Update [Nov, 20 2018, 11:35]: So the new White House press rules; basically, only one question allowed, if called upon, and a follow up question, only if the President / White House staff member allows it, failure to follow these rules could mean that reporter’s hard pass could be revoked. Basically, Trump can blatantly lie, and there is no recourse, i.e. follow-up, calling out the president on his lies.
CNN’s Jim Acosta has also permanently had his hard pass reinstated, meaning the legal case is over and done with as The White House has backed down from defending against CNN’s legal challenge.