New York Times sues Hegseth over Pentagon press crackdown

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — The New York Times has filed a high-stakes lawsuit against the Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s new restrictions on press access.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC Thursday morning, names the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, as defendants.

The lawsuit seeks the repeal of a new policy, instituted in October, that prompted Pentagon beat reporters to turn in their press passes rather than sign onto the restrictions.

“The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in violation of a free press’ right to seek information under their First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said.

“The Times intends to vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability,” he added.

Attorneys for The Times seek a declaration that the new policy is unconstitutional on its face and an injunction barring its enforcement.

“We are aware of the New York Times lawsuit and look forward to addressing these arguments in court,” Parnell said in a statement to CNN.

Hegseth and his aides will likely object to the suit using the same national security arguments that accompanied October’s restrictions.

News media industry leaders and other critics of the new policy said Hegseth’s real intent was to impede independent reporters while installing pliable pro-Trump content creators in place of the press corps.

Earlier this week, Hegseth welcomed dozens of MAGA media influencers and commentators to the Pentagon for orientation sessions and press briefings.

The content creators, who all accepted the new restrictions at the core of The Times’ lawsuit, have been billed by Hegseth’s communication team as the “new Pentagon press corps,” despite the group’s general lack of military beat reporting experience.

Meanwhile, the veteran journalists who handed in their press passes in October continue to report on the Pentagon from outside its five walls.

Parnell has claimed that those journalists “chose to self-deport” and “they will not be missed.”

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson, who did not hold a single on-camera press briefing when the beat reporters were still in the building, cheerfully held one for the “new” press corps on Tuesday.

Some beat reporters, including those from The Times and CNN, asked to attend but were not allowed.

The Times’ suit was immediately cheered by some press freedom advocates. Freedom of the Press Foundation executive director Trevor Timm said the “only way to put an end to the Trump administration’s multipronged assault on press freedom is for every news outlet to fight back at every opportunity.”

But the legal battle is not without risk, since an adverse ruling could set back press access more broadly.

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents the bulk of the beat reporters who refused to go along with the new restrictions, said it was “encouraged” by The Times’ effort to “step up and defend press freedom.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) also said it stood firmly with The Times in challenging “the Pentagon’s unprecedented restrictions on press access.”

“The Times’ lawsuit is a necessary and vital step to ensure journalists can do their jobs,” the WHCA said.

The Times noted that dozens of news outlets took a collective stand against the access restrictions in October, including conservative outlets like Fox News and Newsmax.

While The Times is the only media outlet suing, other newsrooms are expected to file briefs in support of the case, attorneys involved in the matter said.

In a statement reacting to the Times suit, CNN said, “The Pentagon has asked news organizations to surrender their journalistic principles and First Amendment rights in exchange for access. CNN will not do this.”

“As we have said, the newly implemented policy is without precedent and threatens core protections for independent journalism,” CNN’s statement continued. “We will continue to cover the U.S. military accurately and fairly and we stand with The New York Times and all of the other major news organizations, from CBS to the Wall Street Journal to Fox News, who have refused to sign up to this reckless new policy. We will follow the progress of The Times’s legal complaint closely.”

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