CNN on Monday requested an emergency hearing in U.S. District Court after the White House threatened to again pull the press credentials of the network’s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.
The network in the new court filing said White House officials on Friday sent Acosta a letter stating his press pass would be revoked again after a court-ordered temporary restoration expires at the end of the month.
{mosads}White House communications official Bill Shine and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the letter to Acosta called the decision to revoke his press pass “preliminary,” warning it would be “final” soon.
They offered the White House reporter the option of submitting a “written response” by Sunday, a deadline that CNN in the filing said was set “arbitrary.”
CNN said the letter amounts to an “attempt to provide retroactive due process,” calling for a hearing on a preliminary injunction during “the week of November 26, 2018, or as soon thereafter as possible.”
The White House pulled Acosta’s press pass after he tangled with President Trump during a news conference earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly last Friday granted CNN’s request to restore Acosta’s “hard” press pass through a 14-day temporary injunction that expires on Nov. 30.
Kelly said Acosta’s Fifth Amendment rights to due process were violated but did not weigh in on whether the move was a violation of the First Amendment.
Sanders said the White House’s restoration of Acosta’s press credentials would be temporary.
Sanders and Trump have argued that Acosta’s behavior during press conferences is distracting and disrespectful.
Many major news outlets, including Fox News, CBS, ABC and others, filed amicus briefs in the original lawsuit in support of CNN, calling it an issue of press freedom.