The AP sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the blocking of its journalists. "We'll see them in court," responded White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is named in the lawsuit along with White House chief of staff Susan Wiles and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich. The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in US District Court in Washington, DC, 10 days after the White House began restricting access to the news agency. The case was assigned to US District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee.
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech—specifically not changing its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," as Trump ordered last month. "The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," the AP said in its lawsuit. "This targeted attack on the AP's editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment."
Leavitt said that she learned about the lawsuit Friday while driving from the White House to an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I wanted to get the White House counsel on the phone before taking this stage to see what I can and cannot say but, look, we feel we are in the right in this position," she said. "We're going to ensure that truth and accuracy is present at that White House every single day." In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago or flying on Air Force One in the agency's customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP's decision not to follow the president's order to rename the gulf. "We're going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America," Trump said Tuesday.
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This week, about 40 news organizations signed a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP. They included outlets like Fox News Channel and Newsmax, where many of the on-air commentators are Trump supporters. While AP journalists have still been allowed on White House grounds, they have been kept out of the "pool" of journalists that cover events in smaller spaces and report back to their readers and other reporters. The AP has been part of White House pools for more than a century.
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