President Donald Trump’s own social media posts undercut his lawyers in court and helped hand him a loss, a free speech attorney said.
Conor Fitzpatrick, chief supervising attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday that Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled against Trump’s White House press ban. Fitzpatrick called the ruling a “comprehensive win for the media organizations.” The ruling means CNN, MS NOW and Politico keep their White House access while the litigation plays out.
Fitzpatrick said the judge sided with the outlets on more than the due process grounds behind his earlier temporary restraining order.
“Judge Kelly ruled in favor of CNN, MS NOW and Politico, not just on the due process ground, which was the ground that he granted the TRO on, but also on First Amendment grounds, finding that President Trump’s actions constituted unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and unconstitutional retaliation,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Trump administration’s national security justification “did not persuade the judge in the slightest,” he added, noting the judge pointed out near the end of the opinion that the government had not supplied any evidence to back it up, “even ex parte in camera evidence or confidential evidence.”
Fitzpatrick said the problem surfaced at last week’s hearing, when Trump was on social media saying the ban was about unfavorable coverage while the Justice Department told the court it was about national security.
He said the judge asked the DOJ attorney, “What am I supposed to do when the president is telling me one thing, but you’re telling me another?”
“I think this opinion is a very comprehensive one, and it shows that the idea that this was about national security was never accurate,” Fitzpatrick said.
“What you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, Mr. President,” Coates responded.
Coates noted that the ruling comes at the injunction stage and preserves the status quo rather than ending the case.
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