CNN sues Trump over reporter Jim Acosta press pass

News channel CNN has taken legal action after their reporter Jim Acosta was banned from the White House after a fiery press conference.

President Donald Trump watches as a White House aide reaches to take away a microphone from CNN journalist Jim Acosta during the fiery news conference. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

CNN filed a lawsuit against President Trump and his administration seeking to reinstate the credentials of Jim Acosta, the cable news channel correspondent who was banned from the White House after clashing with the president during a press conference last week.

“The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acosta’s First Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their Fifth Amendment rights to due process,” CNN said in a written statement.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asks for a restraining order requiring the return of Mr. Acosta’s White House press pass.

When the White House suspended Mr Acosta’s pass last week, it said it did so because he had placed his hands on an intern who was trying to take the microphone from him after Mr. Trump indicated he was no longer taking the reporter’s questions. Video of the altercation shows incidental contact between the intern and Mr. Acosta before the reporter gave up the microphone.

CNN has said this fight wasn’t about the intern but rather about the president’s contempt for Mr Acosta and CNN.

“While the suit is specific to CNN and Acosta, this could have happened to anyone. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials,” CNN said.

CNN is a unit of AT&T Inc.

‘Just more grandstanding’

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the suit is “just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”

Trump points to journalist Jim Acosta as Acosta tries to ask a question. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

“After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions — each of which the President answered — he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern, so that other reporters might ask their questions. This was not the first time this reporter has inappropriately refused to yield to other reporters,” she said in a written statement.

Ms Sanders said that besides Mr. Acosta, CNN has “nearly 50” additional holders of White House hard passes, which allow journalists to enter White House grounds.

Years of feuding

The legal battle between CNN and the White House is the culmination of years of public feuding between the news outlet, Mr. Acosta and Mr. Trump. In its suit, CNN notes several examples of verbal and social-media attacks by Mr. Trump both before and after he became president.

“At a news conference on January 11, 2017, for example, then-President-elect Trump told Acosta, ‘your organisation is terrible.’

Acosta responded: ‘You’re attacking us. Can you give us a question?’ The President replied: ‘Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a question … You are fake news’,” the suit said.

Last year, President Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner privately criticised CNN to a senior executive of the network’s then-owner, Time Warner Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

When AT&T announced its intent to acquire Time Warner, the Trump administration voiced its opposition to the deal and the Justice Department unsuccessfully sued to block the sale.

After the Justice Department challenged the deal, people inside CNN and close to AT&T worried that Mr. Trump’s views on CNN were influencing the deal review.

In a September interview with The Wall Street Journal, AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said there appeared to be carry-over from the election rhetoric. “I don’t think it’s illogical to believe that a lot of these activities were a function of comments he made as a candidate that he intended to fulfil,” Mr Stephenson said. He said he wasn’t suggesting Mr. Trump personally intervened with the Justice Department.

Donald Trump speaks as CNN's Jim Acosta, standing at right, listens, during the news conference. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

In a separate interview Monday, Mr Stephenson criticised the White House decision to suspend Mr Acosta’s press credentials, saying officials had ignored established procedures.

“If the White House wants to pull someone’s press credentials, there is a process,” Mr. Stephenson said at the Journal’s WSJ Tech D. Live conference. “That process must be followed, otherwise what is the criteria for pulling somebody’s press credentials?” “You didn’t like the line of questioning? Well, that kind of seems to be violative of our protections of freedom of the press,” he said.

Mr Trump has labelled much of the media coverage he doesn’t like “fake news.”

The clash escalates. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

Potential ‘abuses of power’

At political rallies he often calls the press an “enemy of the people,” and the attacks play well among his base.

Democratic control of the House of Representatives could introduce a new dynamic in the relationship between Mr Trump and the media. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who will head the House Intelligence Committee, recently told Axios that Congress should investigate Mr Trump’s potential abuses of power in his relations with the press, citing the AT&T-Time Warner deal, as well as the possibility that the president wanted to raise postal rates on Amazon.com Inc. to punish its CEO, Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post.

The House Intelligence Committee lacks jurisdiction over antitrust matters or allegations of Justice Department interference.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an amicus brief in support of CNN, and the White House Correspondents’ Association said it strongly supported CNN’s actions.

“We continue to urge the Administration to reverse course and fully reinstate CNN’s correspondent,” the WHCA said in a written statement.

“The President of the United States should not be in the business of arbitrarily picking the men and women who cover him.”

“It is un-American and unlawful for the president to expel a reporter from the White House briefing room for doing his job,” said Ben Wizner, a director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

“It shouldn’t take a lawsuit from CNN to remind the president of the First Amendment.”

— with Rebecca Ballhaus

—The Wall Street Journal