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Judge Overturns Trump Media Ban in Humiliating 1AM Ruling

The judge ruled that the president’s actions were unconstitutional.

President Donald Trump has been ordered to immediately restore the press credentials of the three media outlets he banned, in a dramatic early-morning ruling.

Trump, 80, banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last Friday, leaving rival networks refusing to cover his activities in solidarity.

The outlets took legal action against Trump, claiming his ban violated the First Amendment. At approximately 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order.

Kelly found that the news outlets were likely to succeed in their claim that their media passes, or “hard passes,” were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process. Kelly ordered the passes returned immediately.

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Once the ban was in effect, Trump and his lawyers then claimed the access had been revoked due to prior reporting flagging concerns of national security.

In his ruling, Kelly said, “For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns.

He added, “Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House—instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting.”

First Amendment Attorney Ted Boutrous, who is representing CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in the lawsuit, said on Thursday morning, “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process, and rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s decision.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sept. 18, “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America.” He added ominously, “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

Trump’s ban has already backfired on him, with none of the five major networks covering his lavish meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews.

Speaking about the event with a 100-ft red carpet and military flyover, CNN host Kaitlan Collins said, “It was a landmark scene made for television that had trouble finding a screen... No cameras from the five major TV networks that reach millions of people every day were rolling as it happened.”

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The president had already planted the seeds for a possible court embarrassment, posting on Truth Social on Wednesday that the “good news” for the media he banned was that “they have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge.”

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He had also earlier preempted the result, saying, “We’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown `sources’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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Speaking on CNN at 1:30 a.m, the network’s media analyst Brian Stelter said he suspected the banned journalists would have to be allowed to return to the White House on Thursday.

He said CNN’s lawyer Boutrous had also warned of “shenanigans” the White House could use to impose different bans or punish news outlets after the court ruling.

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Stelter said Trump would be keen for his Thursday meeting with the Chinese leader to get as much media attention as possible.

“President Trump seems to want the pictures. He wants the visuals... the ceremonial aspects are very important to him,” the CNN media analyst said.

He said the rival networks not showing Trump’s meeting with President Xi Jinping out of solidarity was unprecedented.

“This has been such a turning point... in the news media’s collective response to President Trump’s egregious, extreme behavior toward the press corps,” Stelter said.

While he predicted a “partial restoration” of coverage, he also warned Trump and his aides will be seeking loopholes and could “look for other ways to take this sort of retribution or intimidation.... to enforce some sort of ban.”

Stelter said Trump’s media ban has also been a “wake-up call” for freedom of the press in America.

“Press freedom is your freedom,” he said. “The rights of MS NOW or Politico or CNN to report the news are not just about news outlets. They’re about all Americans having those basic First Amendment rights, and I think that’s something that is much more front and center than it was a week ago before this all started.”

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