White House denies access to MS NOW and Politico despite judge ruling against Trump’s media ban

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Donald Trump’s administration has blocked at least two news outlets from the White House and stripped them of their credentials despite a federal judge’s court order overturning the president’s media ban hours earlier.

Reporters from Politico and MS NOW were denied entry on Thursday morning after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order that requires the White House to immediately return reporters’ press passes.

In an order that arrived around 1 a.m., Judge Kelly rejected arguments from the Trump administration that the president’s ban targeting Politico, MS NOW and Politico was motivated by national security concerns.

“The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds,” he wrote.

The ban appeared to be motivated by the president’s attempts to restrain negative press,according to Kelly.

Laura Barrón-López, who covers the White House for MS NOW, told the network that she showed her pass to Secret Service agents to get past a barricade and then entered a press area where she was denied entry.

After scanning her pass and entering her PIN, the machine began flashing red, she said.

A Secret Service agent told her “it’s still being disabled,” she told the network.

Her badge was then confiscated, she said.

She said it remains unclear whether the administration is explicitly defying Kelly’s court order or whether there is a “lag” in the system.