Team Trump will not pull CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” for the White House — an about-face from the position it took just hours earlier.
“Having received a formal reply from your counsel to our letter of November 16, we have made a final determination in this process: your hard pass is restored,” the White House said in a letter to Acosta.
“Should you refuse to follow these rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules set forth above. The President is aware of this decision and concurs.”
The letter explained new rules for reporters’ conduct at White House news briefings and presidential press conferences, including allowing only “a single question” from each reporter.
Follow-ups will only be allowed “at the discretion of the President or other White House officials.”
Just hours earlier, the White House had warned Acosta that his press pass would be yanked again once a court’s temporary restraining order expired — and the network announced Monday that it was seeking an emergency hearing in response.
The letter from the White House came after a federal judge on Friday ordered Acosta’s press pass be temporarily restored for 14 days, CNN reported late Sunday.
“The White House is continuing to violate the First and 5th Amendments of the Constitution. These actions threaten all journalists and news organizations. Jim Acosta and CNN will continue to report the news about the White House and the President,” the cable network said in a statement.
On Monday, CNN’s lawyers said the network and its chief White House correspondent “remain hopeful” that the parties “can resolve this dispute without further court intervention.”
But the new letter from deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders — two of the defendants in CNN’s lawsuit — was an “attempt to provide retroactive due process,” the lawyers said.