Trump is 'best witness' against himself in massive new suit: legal scholar

President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks with reporters before boarding the new Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump could wind up being the "best witness" against himself in a massive new lawsuit against his recent press ban, with one legal scholar highlighting on MS NOW his relentless public attacks against the media as key evidence.

Last week, Trump abruptly announced on Truth Social that he was banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House, dubiously accusing them of intentionally spreading lies about him. This pronouncement quickly became reality as reporters from those outlets gradually had their access revoked when they tried to show up for work.

The fallout from this ban was swift and damning, with numerous other news outlets condemning the decision and offering support for the three targeted outlets. On Monday, the typically Trump-friendly Fox News Washington Bureau Chief and White House Pool Chief Bryan Boughton announced that the entire pool would not be covering presidential events in response to the ban, amounting to a boycott of the White House by the major news networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

Later on in the day, James Sample, a legal analyst and law professor at Hofstra University, appeared on MS NOW to discuss the new lawsuit brought against the White House by the network, alongside CNN and Politico. As he noted, Trump-friendly federal appeals court judge and leading potential Supreme Court nominee Neomi Rao laid out the case against the president's various media bans while serving on the panel considering the Associated Press's ban after it refused to go along with Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

"When the white house opens its facilities to the press, generally, as it does in the Brady Briefing Room, it cannot exclude journalists based on viewpoint," Rao said, as quoted by Sample.

From this legal point of view, Sample argued that Trump himself would be the networks' "absolute witness number one," given his many past statements attacking the press.

"And tothat point, you know who theplaintiffs' best witness is? Youknow who MS Now and CNN andPolitico have as theirabsolute witness number one?The President of the United States," Sample said. "Because every time hespeaks, every time he posts, hemakes the case stronger thatthis is nothing other thanviewpoint discrimination. Whenhe says, quote, 'because they'refake news, purposely negativestories, I don't have to letthem into my ' — Freudian slip — intothe People's House. He thinks it's his. It's not."

Host Katy Tur, in response, pressed Sample about why Trump's authority to block certain reporters from the White House would be different, considering that he can decide who follows him on Air Force One and into the East Room.

"Because there is an areathat is set aside for generalaccess for mediapurposes," Sample explained. "So he can decide thathe wants to sit down with Sean Hannity and not with Katy Tur,but he cannot decide that the networks helikes can have access to thebriefing room, can have accessto the white house staff, canhave access to the White Housegrounds, and those he does not like cannot because he doesn'tlike them."

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