DOJ fumes at 'Trumpalooza' media coverage in 'exceptionally weak' filing

President Donald Trump escalated his war against the mainstream media with a White House ban against CNN, MS NOW and Politico, resulting in a major civil lawsuit from those media outlets. The Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Politico's Kyle Cheney reports, defended the ban in a Tuesday night, September 22 filing. But attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. is attacking the Trump DOJ's arguments as "exceptionally weak."

Cheney, in a Wednesday morning thread on X, explains, "NEW: DOJ is justifying President Trump's ban on media orgs by citing stories about sensitive topics like depleted U.S. munitions, the war in Iran, Trump's ballroom security features and ... bad 'vibes' at the GOP midterm convention."

Cheney and colleague Josh Gerstein, in Politico, report, "In a court filing Tuesday night, the Justice Department defended Trump's decision to ban Politico, CNN and MS NOW from the White House, describing it as a move rooted in the outlets' publication of sensitive information … The filing, a response to an emergency lawsuit brought by the three news organizations demanding immediate restoration of their West Wing access, cited several stories by each outlet, including accounts about the state of the war with Iran, depleted U.S. munition stockpiles and details of a leak probe related to unflattering stories about FBI Director Kash Patel. The filing criticizes Politico for publishing a handout that the Secret Service provided to Senate Republicans to justify the construction of the president's new White House ballroom."

The Politico reporters continue, "The Justice Department brief also attached letters the administration purportedly sent to each outlet earlier Tuesday, citing those stories as the basis for Trump's decision to revoke their White House access, giving them until Friday to contest it. However, the letters — which are unsigned and do not appear on official letterhead — do not claim that any of the cited stories contained classified information. In addition, some of the examples don't appear to have any national security nexus at all. The letter addressed to Politico complains about a report that described bad 'vibes' at the recent GOP midterm convention in Texas."

But according to attorney Boutrous, who is representing the three media outlets in their lawsuit, the Trump DOJ's arguments don't pass the smell test.

Boutrous told Politico, "This is an exceptionally weak response. We look forward to the hearing."

The hearing that Boutrous referenced is set for 3:30 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, with U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, presiding.

"Kelly presided over a similar legal fight in 2018 triggered by the Trump White House's revocation of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta's credentials following a dispute about his actions at a press conference," Cheney and Gerstein note. "The judge issued a quick ruling in Acosta's favor, ordering the White House to return his hard pass."