Boutrous says the ban is meant to punish and intimidate the press
Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.Lead attorney for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, in a statement on the lawsuit
Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the lead attorney for CNN, MS NOW and Politico in their lawsuit against the Trump administration, said the ban is intended to punish and intimidate the press and harms the public's right to fact-based coverage of the president.
“The President has been explicit that this ban is intended to punish reporting he doesn't like and to intimidate journalists and news organizations covering him and his administration. This ban on the free press harms the American people, who are entitled to rigorous, fact-based coverage of the President of the United States.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Should President Trump bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over their coverage?
On Friday, September 18, 2026, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that, "effective immediately, I am banning" CNN, MS NOW and Politico "from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" About an hour later, in the Oval Office, he said no particular story prompted the decision, that he does not want the outlets "in my office," and that "somebody has a right to keep them away" if outlets write false stories. The three outlets and press-freedom groups oppose the exclusion, citing constitutional protection for the press, and the White House Correspondents' Association said it "stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and POLITICO." On Saturday, September 19, MS NOW, CNN and Politico said their White House reporters were refused entry and had press passes confiscated; the White House referred questions to Trump's earlier remarks. The dispute is over whether President Trump should exclude named news organizations from White House access over what they report.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
NPR quotes Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the lead attorney for CNN, MS NOW and Politico in their lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying the ban is intended to punish and intimidate the press and harms the public's right to coverage of the president.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
The statement accompanied the outlets' lawsuit filed in federal court on September 21.
After the quotation
The White House responded by pointing to Trump's prior Truth Social statement that the ban targets "FAKE NEWS," not the free press generally.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Boutrous, representing the outlets in litigation over that exclusion, directly condemns it as retaliatory and harmful to the public, not merely a dispute over characterization.
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The Dispute Index. "Boutrous says the ban is meant to punish and intimidate the press". First published: 2026-09-22. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/1418-theodore-j-boutrous-jr-the-lead-attorney-for