Signs of support for AP, CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO hang on the grounds of the White House on September 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Finn Gomez/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Finn Gomez/Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Justice Department defended President Trump’s recent media ban, arguing that reporting by CNN, MS Now and Politico on a wide range of topics, from the construction of the White House ballroom to reported munitions depletion during the Iran war and the Republican midterm convention, endangered national security and spread falsehoods. In a court filing Tuesday night, responding to the lawsuit filed Monday by the three media organizations, the Justice Department asked the court to deny the media’s request to have access to the White House restored. The Justice Department filing included letters from the White House, dated Sept. 22, accusing the three banned media outlets of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other matters, and publishing sensitive or classified information.” The Justice Department’s response came just hours before an emergency session of the federal court in Washington, D.C., scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in a case that will further test First Amendment protections under the Trump administration. CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a lawsuit against Trump on Monday for violating their constitutional rights after his administration revoked the White House press credentials of media reporters. “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment or a more flagrant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit cites the First Amendment rights of news organizations not to be punished by the federal government for their news coverage. It also cites your Fifth Amendment rights to due process: the government cannot take away rights or privileges without any warning or process to intercede or appeal the decision. White House television correspondents prepare to go live as the CNN booth sits empty on the White House grounds on September 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Finn Gomez/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Finn Gomez/Getty Images In its filing Tuesday, the Justice Department argued that Trump revoked access to the White House grounds for the three media outlets because he “concluded that they had failed to maintain basic minimum standards of professionalism and decorum” and for “publishing sensitive or classified information.” “After all, access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” the Justice Department argued. In letters to CNN and MS Now, the White House alleged that the media had jeopardized national security or spread falsehoods by publishing details related to the construction of the White House East Wing bunker to deplete US ammunition stockpiles during the Iran War. The cases cited in the White House letter to Politico sought to challenge the outlet’s reporting on the Trump administration’s lifting of sanctions against Russia, and rebuked Politico’s reporting on the Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas as “a disaster.” The letters were dated September 22, four days after Trump denied the media access to the White House. The White House set a Friday deadline for banned media outlets to file written complaints challenging Trump’s decision. The ban on three news organizations is the latest example of Trump’s attempt to restrict the press. In his first term, he revoked the press credentials of Jim Acosta, then CNN’s White House correspondent. Trump denied access to the Oval Office and Air Force One to the Associated Press over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s preferred name, Gulf of America, and that case is still in court. On Friday, he told reporters at the White House that his decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico had not been prompted by any specific reporting but by the accumulation of what he called two years of unfair and negative coverage.
