AP Says It Remains Blocked From Oval Office Despite Judge’s Order to Restore Access

The Associated Press said it was blocked from an event between President Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, a week after a federal judge granted its request for an injunction against the White House’s ban on the outlet.

“Our journalists were blocked from the Oval Office today,” an AP spokesperson told TheWrap. “We expect the White House to restore AP’s participation in the pool as of today, as provided in the injunction order.”

The White House had previously banned the AP from the Oval Office for refusing to use the term “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico, following the president’s renaming of the body of water on government documents earlier this year.

That decision led to the Trump Administration blocking the AP from the Oval Office, starting on Feb. 11; the AP has been allowed to cover other events at the White House since then, including press briefings.

“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February. “That is an invitation that is given.”

The AP then sued the Trump White House on Feb. 21, arguing its First Amendment rights had been violated by the restricted access.

“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. “The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled the White House must “immediately rescind the denial of AP’s access.”

“The Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” Judge Trevor McFadden said in his ruling. “The Constitution requires no less.”

But the judge cautioned that the decision “does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces. It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views.”

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