CNN sues Trump for revoking scribe’s pass; White House to ‘vigorously’ defend stand

CNN on Tuesday, November 13, announced filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of its correspondent Jim Acosta's access to the White House.

The lawsuit was a response to the White House's suspension of Acosta's press pass, known as a Secret Service "hard pass". The suit alleged that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights were being violated by the ban.

The White House withdrew the permanent credential from Acosta for confronting the President Donald Trump at a press conference following the mid-term results last week.

The suit was filed in US District Court in Washington, a CNN spokeswoman said. Both CNN and Acosta were plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

There were six defendants: Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine, Secret Service director Joseph Clancy and the Secret Service officer who took Acosta's hard pass away last week.

The officer was identified as John Doe in the suit. According to CNN, the six defendants were all named because of their roles in enforcing and announcing Acosta's suspension.

The White House accused Acosta of placing his hands on an intern who was trying to take the microphone away from him during the press conference.

Later, Acosta was denied entry to the White House grounds and Sanders defended the step by claiming that he had behaved inappropriately at the conference.

Sanders, reportedly, shared a distorted video clip of the conference as evidence.

In a statement, CNN said it was seeking a preliminary injunction as soon as possible so that Acosta can return to the White House right away and a ruling from the court preventing the White House from revoking Acosta's pass in the future.

Commenting on the lawsuit filed by CNN, the White House said that it will mount a "vigorous" defence against the lawsuit accusing the administration of violating freedom of the press by suspending the press credentials of one of its reporters after a press conference confrontation with President Donald Trump.

"We have been advised that CNN has filed a complaint challenging the suspension of Jim Acosta's hard pass. This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared in a statement, Efe reported.

The cable news service on Tuesday filed its suit in a District of Columbia court against the president and five members of his staff over the decision to permanently ban CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta from the presidential residence.

In its statement, the administration claimed that 50 other CNN reporters are accredited to cover White House news and that Acosta is not special in any way, suggesting that he can easily be replaced.