Three media outlets seek full White House access in amended lawsuit

Three media outlets that President Donald Trump banned from the White House in September, only to have a federal judge’s order restore much of their access, amended their lawsuit Wednesday, seeking to regain full access to serve in a press pool for other reporters in the Oval Office and Air Force One.

The amended civil complaint against Trump says that since the judge ordered the White House to allow MS NOW, CNN and Politico journalists into the White House, the White House has blocked those outlets from performing pool functions they long have conducted.

The press pool routinely serves as a key source of information for the public about what a president does or says. In pool assignments, journalists agree to share with other media outlets information and images they obtain while acting as a pooler.

The amended complaint sets the stage for a court fight over whether a president, because of how he or she feels about how a media outlet covers them, can block access to individual media outlets or reporters from areas of the White House that other journalists have access to.

Ted Boutrous Jr., an attorney for the outlets, in a statement Wednesday said, “Despite two court orders restraining it from implementing the President’s unconstitutional ban on CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, the White House has continued to violate the First Amendment and due process by excluding those news organizations from areas such as the Oval Office and Air Force One — the very locations that the President most frequently engages with the press.”

“These exclusions, intended to punish and chill coverage of the administration that the President doesn’t like, make it harder for the press to cover some of the most important events in the world for the benefit of the American people,” Boutrous said.

The amended complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. says that Trump’s original ban and “the White House’s continued exclusion of Plaintiffs from certain [areas] are unlawful retaliation for protected First Amendment activity.”

Those actions “brazenly” discriminate against the outlets “based on their perceived editorial viewpoint; the White House is expressly excluding CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO because the President dislikes the content of their coverage,” the suit says.

Judge Tim Kelly’s prior orders restoring access for the outlets did not require the White House to restore those outlets’ access to the Oval Office or Air Force One.

The amended complaint notes that since his second term began in January 2025, Trump has held 121 press events aboard Air Force One or on the tarmac outside the presidential plane, and 138 events in the Oval Office, “during which he fielded no fewer than 4,700 questions from reporters.”

“To be clear, Plaintiffs do not claim an unrestricted right to enter the Oval Office or…