Trump Melt Down Helps Immediate Emergency Lawsuit by CNN, MSNOW & Politico to Block White House Ban

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2:30Michael Popok:Donald Trump's latest attack on freedom of the press, the fourth estate and media outlets like CNN and Politico and MS Now are certainly headed as early as Monday or Tuesday into court as Donald Trump not only announced that he was banning them because he hates their viewpoint and doesn't like their reporting, but when they showed up for work, This is their job under the First Amendment to cover this administration. Their press credentials were confiscated by the Secret Service. We are now exactly where we need to be to bring this directly into court. What will happen when CNN, Politico and MSNOW bring their suits by Monday or Tuesday of next week, seeking temporary restraining orders, emergency injunctions and the ability to do their job?

3:21Michael Popok:It is a fundamental First Amendment viewpoint discrimination case and a Fifth Amendment due process violation because their property rights are being denied to them without due process of law. Let's talk about what just happened. Let's look at the past in some cases involving the Associated Press, Jim Acosta and The New York Times. And I'll kind of give you a watching guide, a viewing guide for what I think is going to happen in the next 24 to 48 hours. All right here on Saturday on Legal AF. I'm Michael Popok. Do me a favor. Take a moment. Hit that free subscribe button. This is our birthday weekend weekend and help us continue to grow our pro-democracy channel all the way to the midterms and beyond.

4:08Michael Popok:All right. What just happened? And Donald Trump got up, I don't know, another wild hair in the middle of the night and decided maybe because CNN just reported on a artificial intelligence hallucination that almost led to a hot war with China and Donald Trump not liking that. He then announced that CNN, Politico and MSNOW were going to have their they're going to be banned. I mean, he had an extensive social media post we'll put up on the screen that went after them by name, said they're fake news, said they've been subsidized in some way by the federal government, I guess, in subscription services or something for$8 million or something.

4:50Michael Popok:And he was doing everything he could to go after them. Right now, Donald Trump is also going after ABC and, you know, related to some of their programming, like Jimmy Kimmel, through his Federal Communications Commission. And that's also playing out in a lawsuit brought by ABC. But this is different. This is where Donald Trump made good on his threat almost immediately. People who are reporters, who are doing what our founding fathers said was one of the most important civic duties was freedom of the press, the right of reporters to report on an administration. administration that's why it's called often the fourth estate the fourth branch of government Donald Trump however always has called it the enemy of the people when they showed up for work and the secret service confiscated their credentials now we've got the injury necessary to run right into court it's not conjectural it's not speculative it's real it's actual now in the past let's just take New York Times Jim Acosta and the Associated Press in order New York Times and its Pentagon reporters like Julian Barnes were denied their press credentials unless they complied with a new series of orders issued by Pete Hegseth, including that they weren't allowed to walk the halls of the Pentagon any longer.

6:13Michael Popok:They were bounced from their press offices within the Pentagon, put in some trailer outside the Pentagon and some other issues. This is after the Pentagon was rocked and is continuing to be rocked with a series of leaks about the bad things that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump are doing. The Pentagon got sued by the New York Times. A federal judge required that the press credentials be returned. Subsequently, an appellate court is allowing the escorts for now while the case plays out on appeal. So a partial but important win for The New York Times to get back in the game and get back in the Pentagon.

6:56Michael Popok:Jim Acosta back in 2018 got out sideways with Donald Trump because of his reporting. That's a good thing for Jim Acosta. And then Jim Acosta was thrown out. His White House press credentials were revoked. He and CNN had to sue at the time to get him back in the game. And he sued under the First Amendment and under the Fifth Amendment. The First Amendment, of course, protects the freedom of the press from government interference. We often refer to those types of cases as viewpoint discrimination cases. You're getting punished, retaliated against, a rule applied to you because of your viewpoint.

7:35Michael Popok:We don't like what you're writing and how you're writing, and that's the reason. As opposed to, no, we just have limited space in the press pool or on the Air Force One or on Marine One or on the tarmac, and so we have the right to pick and choose what's going to be there. No, if you're going to let anybody in and give anybody press credentials, except in limited circumstances, then you got to give all of them. And it can't be a viewpoint discrimination. And for here, it's very it's very easy and obvious that it's viewpoint discrimination because Donald Trump frequently attacks almost on a weekly, if not daily basis, the failing New York Times and the enemy of the people.

8:12Michael Popok:He does it at rallies. He does it everywhere. Here's a clip of I could do a compilation, but here's a clip of just one of them. Play the clip. I double the size of it, you dumb person. Double the size. You are not a smart person. Such a stupid question you ask. We're fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument. And you say, why are you fixing it up? Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don't allow it. This is one of the worst reporters. She's with ABC Fake News and she's a horror show. What would you say to the survivors who feel like they've gotten justice?

8:51You're the worst reporter. CNN has no ratings because of people like you. You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen a smile on my face. Well, I'm asking you about survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. You know why you're not smiling? Because you know you're not telling the truth. And you're a very dishonest organization. And they should be ashamed of you. Mr. President, why are you suing our own discrimination in the IRS? Why are you suing? Who are you with? I'm with ABC News. You're a loud person. Very loud. Let somebody else have a chance.

9:23Can you answer the question? Why are you saying IRS? ABC Fake News. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn't be here. And you're just asking questions because you're a stupid person. Will you let me finish my statement? You are the worst. You're with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst. I don't know why they even have you.

9:51Michael Popok:And so that combined with his social media post where he says the quiet part out loud, I am retaliating against CNN, Politico and MSNOW for their viewpoint because I don't like what they're writing about me. And they don't have the right to do that. Fake news. As soon as you start saying fake news, just translate that for the judge into viewpoint-based First Amendment discrimination. Okay? This is your watching guide. So that's one. Fifth Amendment, interesting. If you have a property right, you know, property right to do your job, property right to pursue your occupation or your profession. You need a license to do that.

10:31Michael Popok:You need access to do that. Whatever you need to do that, and it is denied to you. Or you are fired effectively. even though, of course, these news agencies don't work directly for the Trump administration. But if you're denied that and you're right, your right is taken away from you without due process, we call that a Fifth Amendment violation of the Constitution. So you'll often see a couple of counts here. You'll see First Amendment violation, Fifth Amendment violation, sometimes Administrative Procedures Act. If the agency that took away your right has made a final agency action, you can sue under the Administrative Procedures Act.

11:08Michael Popok:So that's the way the lawsuit, which will be filed along with a separate paper called the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, Emergency Relief. And they're looking for something as early as the beginning of next week, I'm sure. By the time I do more reporting tomorrow and tonight on Legal AF on Midas Touch, the podcast, we're going to have an update in this story for sure. Acosta gets his credentials back eventually. The Associated Press gets, at the beginning of the term, gets barred and banned and made persona non gratis because they won't adopt Gulf of Mexico. Remember Gulf of Mexico became Gulf of America?

11:48Michael Popok:Yeah, this is before Lake Ontario became Lake America and New Mexico, et cetera. And so they refused to change it in their style book and require people for the Associated Press to refer to it that way. Donald Trump didn't like that, so he tried to banish AP from the White House press pool. Now, that one was a mixed bag because the Associated Press won on the district court, trial court level, but on the appellate level, there was some law that was developed that said, well, it depends how small the room is. If we're talking about a tiny press room or the Oval Office, the president probably has more discretion to say, no, I don't want you there, and I don't want you there.

12:27Michael Popok:But it certainly can never be for First Amendment viewpoint-based discrimination. So you've got the recent precedent, all in one part of the first Trump administration and the last two in the second Trump administration. Now let's fast forward to what the arguments are going to be for CNN, Politico, and MS Now in this case. Let me play first a clip. Of course, Jim Acosta in a great position to comment on these things, having been subjected to this eight years ago. Here's what he had to say about the banning. Hey, guys, Donald Trump just announced that he is going to try to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.

13:05The first thing that people need to understand is that this is not going to fly with the courts. Trump and the White House tried this with me back in 2018. They seized my press pass and a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump said that this was a violation of my due process rights. Of course, there are other First Amendment implications here as well. And I'm sure that'll come up in court this time around. If it gets that far, he may back down. But make no mistake, this is an effort to distract the public. Remember what happened with me back in 2018. This was right after the November midterms that they seized my press pass.

13:38And here we are several weeks before the upcoming midterms, and they're trying the same strategy yet again. Go after the press, try to distract the public from the real problems in this country right now, like fuel prices and the Iran war. This is just a distraction, and it's not going to work.

13:53Michael Popok:So I think it's an individual set of lawsuits, CNN, Politico, MSNOW. They may get consolidated into one case, or they may stay separately. I think they may just get assigned to three different judges. And maybe there's some administrative consolidation to put the case in front of one judge. These are individual cases, but you could conceivably, if it stays with three separate judges have three different orders about the same issue. So administratively, the chief judge, who's Jeb Boesberg and the clerk, may put this together and put it in one case and have one judge making one unified ruling about it.

14:36Michael Popok:That's what I think is going to happen. Don't know who that judge is yet. Case hasn't been filed yet. It will. It's being worked on over the weekend for a Monday filing, I am sure, or even a late Sunday night filing. And it will be filed in the District of Columbia and D.C. federal court. I'll know better how the case is going to go when I know who the judge is. All of these judges, whether they're Republican appointed, very few MAGA appointed, very few Trump's second term appointed to the D.C. Circuit, more from his first term, which weren't really that MAGA. But there are a couple in there. So we'll see who the judge is appointed.

15:14Michael Popok:That's going to be very important. It's going to be a civil suit, Fifth Amendment, First Amendment, maybe Administrative Procedures Act, asking for temporary restraining order, then a preliminary injunction, the next level up, on an emergency basis, getting into court almost immediately with the attention of the court. Whoever wins that TRO and then very quickly thereafter preliminary injunction, which I presume is going to be the media outlets, the loser will take an appeal to the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals. Then we'll have to see who the three-judge panel is going to be there. There's a couple of Trumpers in there.

15:54Michael Popok:Get ready. Trump-appointed judges, Judge Rayo, who's an appellate judge, Judge Katsas, and Judge Walker. There's three of them out of about 18 or 20. If they end up on the panel or dominate the panel, that will change my prediction, my analysis of what the result's going to be. if it's the more moderate and liberal wing of the appellate court, that will change my opinion. And then whoever's a loser from there will ultimately take this up to the United States Supreme Court if Donald Trump does not relent in the meantime. We'll continue to cover it. This is the type of thing that we do. This is our bread and butter here on Legal AF.

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