WASHINGTON, June 7. /TASS/. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has suspended a lower court's ruling that required the US administration to restore access for Associated Press (AP) reporters and photographers to the Oval Office, the presidential plane, and other White House facilities during events involving President Donald Trump, according to a document posted on the court's electronic database.
The Washington administration's lawyers argued in the appeal that the president has absolute freedom of action regarding media access to the White House and that the District of Columbia federal court's ruling to restore AP's access infringes on the head of state's rights. On April 16, the AP accused the White House of violating the court's decision by continuing to bar journalists from certain events.
The news agency previously sued White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, and her deputy Taylor Budowich after AP correspondents and photographers were denied access to the Oval Office and other White House rooms for events involving Trump, as well as aboard the presidential plane. The White House imposed these restrictions on the news agency, whose journalists had been part of the White House press pool for many years, in response to the AP's refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" in its reports, despite Trump's executive order renaming it.
A Washington court had previously issued an interim ruling in favor of the White House, refusing to compel the US administration's press service to immediately restore the AP correspondents' full access to Trump-related events. At that time, the court called on the White House to review its decision to restrict AP.