Former CNN reporter Jim Acosta was targeted for a ban from the White House by President Donald Trump in 2018 — but a Trump-appointed judge swiftly restored his access. Now, that same judge is hearing the lawsuit to reverse Trump's complete ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
Acosta, speaking to MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace, believes this case is heading the same way as his own.
"Normally I don't love it when my name comes up in court," said Acosta. However, he continued, "It sounds as though what the judge is going to say. And remember, this is the judge who handled my case eight years ago. It sounds like the judge is saying, 'Listen, this may be a different circumstance. You may be going after whole news organizations this time instead of individual journalists. But ... the same standard applies. You can't violate the due process of these journalists by denying them entry to the White House just because Donald Trump doesn't like a story that they've written.'"
Lawyers for Trump's administration, noted Acosta, are attempting to "dress it up in national security" by arguing there was some safety risk in how they were covering the supposed security features of Trump's White House ballroom project. But "that's not what Donald Trump said the other day. He was saying, I don't like the negative news. I don't like the fake news and so on. And the judge is going to see through that."
Indeed, Acosta added, "I think just a few moments ago, I heard my old lawyer, the wonderful Ted Boutrous ... tell the judge that what they would like to see is for the judge, in this case, Timothy Kelly, to go ahead and apply the same standard this time around and give these journalists their press passes back at MS NOW and CNN and Politico. And that's exactly what I think he's going to do."
"The question becomes, what happens after that?" said Acosta. "Does Donald Trump honor this decision? Does the White House give the press passes back? In my case, they did. I think Trump's been asked about this, and he sort of deflected on it as to whether he would follow a court order here. And so we're all going to have to sort of wait with bated breath as to how he handles this."