Trump ‘warned’ CNN years ago when he called it ‘fake news,’ Justice Department tells judge

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Donald Trump’s administration says three media outlets that were blocked from the White House were widely informed of their impending removal before the president announced he was unilaterally “banning” them.

Justice Department lawyer Michael Velchik told a federal judge Thursday that CNN, one of three media outlets targeted by the president along with MSNOW and Policy“has been on alert for years.”

Trump has long led a crusade against CNN as a bastion of “fake news,” a term that should have served as a signal to the network to change its approach, Velchik suggested.

“Trump doesn’t care about negative press reports if he deserves them,” he said.

Media lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to restore their access to the White House and indefinitely block the Trump administration from stripping them of their credentials while the legal battle continues.

The Justice Department argued that the media was banned for national security reasons, although the president did not make such an argument. The White House press office only raised these concerns in letters to media outlets — after they filed a lawsuit to overturn the ban.

Velchik argued that Trump has the right to target specific journalists and media outlets at his “discretion.”

“The president has the discretion to say, ‘I’m concerned about a particular journalist,'” he said.

Theodore Boutrous, who represents the media, told Kelly on Thursday that the administration set up a “sham process” that amounted to a “blatant” violation of the First Amendment and due process rights.

The media is seeking a preliminary injunction that would prevent the White House from threatening access while the legal challenge plays out.

Trump – as the “decision maker” behind the ban – “made it clear that he was making the decision to ban (the media) in order to punish speech he didn’t like because of his views,” Boutrous said.

“I doubt he knows about these letters,” he said.

In letters to the media on September 22, several days after the initial ban, the White House press office accused the media of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security” and “publishing sensitive or classified information.”

Each letter cited several offensive stories, some dating back several months or more than a year, that “threatened national security and/or spread lies.”

They included articles whose sources were administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance. The stories included reports on the U.S. military, including depletion of munitions in the Iran war, the Trump administration’s responsibility for a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school, and the reduced troop presence in the Pacific and Europe.

At least two articles discuss Trump’s plans for a ballroom and military complex on the site of the now-demolished East Wing of the White House — information that the president and administration officials themselves have detailed in court filings.

Judge Kelly has already issued a temporary restraining order rejecting the government’s arguments that the president’s ban was motivated by national security concerns.

His order, in the early morning hours of September 24, demanded that the White House immediately reinstate the media’s credentials and restore their access to the White House grounds, but it did not explicitly address their participation in media coverage.

The affected reporters were finally allowed onto the White House grounds around noon that day, but on September 25, CNN learned that he would not be allowed to travel aboard Air Force One as the designated television network pooler for the president’s trip to Knoxville, Tennessee.

The White House also blocked Policy from Air Force One on Monday.

In an interview with TIME released last week, Trump denied violating the court order while White House communications director Steven Cheung argued that restoring press passes was “different than allowing the pool access to events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.”

The White House said The Independent that traveling aboard Air Force One is a “privilege, not a right” and defended Trump as “the most accessible president in American history” who “will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press.”

Judge Kelly is expected to issue his decision in the coming days.

His temporary restraining order is set to expire at midnight Monday.