CNN Drops Lawsuit, White House Restoring Jim Acosta’s Press Credentials

The legal drama between the White House and CNN correspondent Jim Acosta is over, at least for now.

CNN announced on Monday that they were dropping their lawsuit against the White House after the administration agreed to restore full credentialed privileges to Acosta, according to reports from Politico. Since there’s no “harm” to speak of being committed against one of their journalists, CNN no longer has a need to sue the president or his press team.

“Today the @WhiteHouse fully restored @Acosta’s press pass,” the CNN Communications Twitter account wrote. “As a result, our lawsuit is no longer necessary. We look forward to continuing to cover the White House.”

The news comes just hours after CNN suggested that the White House was again making attempts to usurp their First and Fifth Amendment rights. On Sunday, the White House sent a notice to CNN, telling them and Acosta that they would seek to revoke his press credentials yet again as soon as a temporary court order in their favor expired at the end of the month, per previous reporting from the Inquisitr.

A federal judge, who was appointed by President Donald Trump himself, ruled on Friday in favor of CNN — at least on a temporary basis — granting Acosta his credentials back while the case went under further review.

CNN drops suit against White House after Acosta’s press pass is fully restored https://t.co/9ZLURjbrxQ

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 19, 2018

In a letter sent Friday that was released on Monday, the White House seemed to acknowledge that Acosta hadn’t broken any rules per se. But they did write that “basic, widely understood practices” were broken, including refusing to yield a microphone when an intern had reached to grab it from Acosta, according to a report from the Washington Post.

It was that incident that seemed to originally prompt the Trump administration to restrict Acosta’s access to the White House. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders cited the supposed altercation between the intern and Acosta, suggesting that he had placed his hands on her in an inappropriate way. The press secretary also shared an animated image that sped up Acosta’s arm motion when the intern had reached across his body, making it appear as if he had done a “chopping” motion, per reporting from the Wrap.

In court, the administration seemed to change its rationale for barring Acosta from the White House. Because they did so, and because they failed to give Acosta an opportunity to defend himself before revoking his privileges, the federal judge ruled that the White House had seemed to violate his Fifth Amendment due process rights, and granted the temporary order restoring his credentials.