A federal judge has denied the Associated Press‘s request that he further direct the White House to restore its access to President Donald Trump and certain spaces.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden initially handed the AP a victory earlier this month. He issued an injunction stating the White House was not allowed to limit access to the president over disagreements surrounding the outlet’s refusal to comply with Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Although that injunction went into effect on April 14, the White House announced changes to the presidential press pool the following day that effectively continued to limit the AP’s access by eliminating the news wire spot altogether.
After hearing arguments from the outlet and the Justice Department on Friday, McFadden disagreed with the AP’s position that the administration’s latest policy, which eliminates a permanent slot for all wire services but makes them eligible for selection as part of the pool’s daily print journalist rotation, violated the terms of his injunction. The White House reserves the right to set such policies as long as they don’t discriminate against a particular outlet, he argued.
“I don’t intend to micromanage the White House,” the Washington, D.C., judge said. “I think they are certainly entitled to a presumption of good faith in their actions.”
Responding to the latest court documents filed by the AP complaining they weren’t granted access to the press pool for three consecutive days following the April 14 injunction, McFadden said it was too soon to draw any conclusions about discrimination, as the White House’s policy reducing all newswires’ access to the president went into effect shortly after that date.
McFadden said Friday that the new policy appeared neutral.
“The policy on its face is not necessarily problematic, but the results for the last few days give me some concern that the defendants aren’t proceeding with compliance,” he said.
However, he said not enough time had elapsed to make a conclusive case for or against whether the Trump administration is unfairly targeting the AP’s access to the press pool.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES TAKEOVER OF PRESS ROTATION FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENTS
“We are not at the point where we can make much of a determination one way or another. … The proof is in the pudding,” he said. There would be strong evidence of discrimination if the AP was “repeatedly receiving second class treatment” compared to peer wire services,” the judge added.
“If there was evidence of noncompliance, that would be a very serious problem and there would be significant consequences,” McFadden continued.