CNN Threatens New Legal Action Over Exclusion From Air Force One Press Pool
CNN is threatening to escalate its legal fight with the Trump administration over press access, accusing the White House of keeping the network’s crews off Air Force One even after a federal judge ordered its White House credentials restored.
In a letter sent Monday to Justice Department senior counsel Michael Velchik, CNN’s outside lawyer, Theodore Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn, wrote that the network “will have no choice but to return to the court to defend its rights” if the exclusions continue, according to CNN and The Washington Post. Boutrous called the administration’s actions “mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful.”
The letter asks the administration to confirm in writing that the White House will abandon any policy of excluding CNN from the Oval Office and Air Force One and will stop blocking the network from its assigned pool duties. CNN reported that the letter set a deadline of 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.
A Fight Over Pool Duty
The five major television networks rotate responsibility for pooled video coverage of the president, which other outlets around the world rely on. According to the letter, as described by CNN, the White House left CNN off the travel list on several occasions when it was next in the rotation, most recently for the president’s trip to Georgia and Florida last weekend. Deadline reported that this has left some days of presidential travel over the past month without a primary TV pooler, and CNN said the other major networks have declined to fill in as a show of solidarity.
The dispute grows out of the administration’s decision about a month ago to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. The three outlets sued, arguing the ban violated the First and Fifth Amendments. Last week, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction, finding the outlets were likely to succeed on their claim that the ban amounted to viewpoint discrimination. TheWrap reported that the administration has appealed that ruling.
The Administration’s Position
The White House has argued that reporters have no constitutional right of access to restricted spaces such as the Oval Office, TheWrap reported. After last week’s ruling, a White House official said “the Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office,” according to CNN. The Justice Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the letter Tuesday morning.
CNN reported that the administration appears to be relying on an earlier case brought by The Associated Press, which was barred from Air Force One and the Oval Office after it declined to adopt the president’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico. In June 2025, an appeals court panel said the AP was unlikely to win on those spaces because they are not open First Amendment forums. Boutrous argued that ruling is non-binding and non-precedential, and the AP is still awaiting a decision from the full appeals court.
Boutrous also argued that the Oval Office and Air Force One have become the main venues where the president takes questions. Citing figures in the letter, CNN reported that through September, Trump had appeared in the White House briefing room four times this year while holding 43 press events in the Oval Office and answering questions aboard or around Air Force One 51 times.
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