CNN has threatened the Trump administration with further legal action over the continued exclusion of its journalists from Air Force One and the White House press pool, according to a letter sent to the Department of Justice and obtained by the Washington Sun.
In the letter, CNN attorney Theodore Boutrous set a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday for access to be restored, arguing the ban illegally interferes with the network's work as a member of the pool. 'These efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,' Boutrous wrote.
The dispute escalated last month when CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued jointly after their reporters were barred from White House grounds. A judge granted a temporary injunction, but CNN says its reporters have since been denied Air Force One access four times, without advance notice or explanation — most recently on a September 26 trip to Tennessee.
CNN joined the White House television pool rotation in 1981 and says it had uninterrupted access to the Oval Office and Air Force One until now. The case has become the latest front in a broader fight over press access that also includes the Associated Press's litigation over restricted spaces, and its outcome will set terms for how far a White House can go in choosing which outlets travel with the president.
