Media critic rips Sarah Sanders' response to CNN lawsuit: There’s a reason lawyers want short statements from defendants

In response to President Donald Trump revoking CNN's White House Correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass,  the network has a filed a lawsuit against Trump and top aides.

White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, released a statement in defense of Trump stating that the White House "will vigorously defend against this lawsuit."

However, her statement didn't stop there. Media critic Erik Wemple, wrote in The Washington Post, that Sanders statement may end up doing more legal harm than good.

Sanders listed the reasons she believes that Acosta lost his press pass.

"CNN, who has nearly 50 additional hard pass holders (2), and Mr. Acosta is no more or less special than any other media outlet or reporter with respect to the First Amendment. (3) After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions — each of which the President answered — he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern (4), so that other reporters might ask their questions. This was not the first time this reporter has inappropriately refused to yield to other reporters, (5)" she wrote.

Wemple went line by line and fact-checked each statement she made. For example, he wrote, "An omission: Sanders appears to have bailed on a previous statement accusing Acosta of “placing his hands” on an intern at last week’s press conference who was attempting to retrieve a microphone. As the New York Times reported, Sanders relied on the misleading video to lodge the allegation."

"There’s a reason why lawyers commonly insist that defendants in civil suits respond with short and boring statements, such as We will vigorously fight this litigation," he concluded.

Read the full report here.