(Adnkronos) – “The president has determined that the plaintiffs failed to maintain minimum journalistic standards by publishing classified and national security news.” Thus, Justice Department lawyers assert that Donald Trump has the authority to ban CNN, Ms Now, and Politico journalists from entering the White House for national security reasons, in the brief filed last night before the federal judge who will hear the journalists’ appeal against the ban in the first hearing today.
Not only that, the brief states that “access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” an argument that allows lawyers to contend that Trump’s ban does not violate the rights enshrined in the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and the press, as the three news outlets claim. News outlets that the Trump administration accuses of “peddling verified falsehoods about national security and other matters and publishing sensitive or classified information.”
The brief also cites the news stories under accusation, from revelations about the actual state of the war in Iran, to those about US military arsenals in crisis, up to the confidential documents given by the Secret Service to the Senate to justify the construction of Trump’s ballroom at the White House. The Justice Department also enclosed letters sent to the news outlets affected by the ban, citing the news that allegedly provoked Trump’s ‘punishment’. Although the letter received by Politico, the site reveals, makes no reference to classified news.
