President George W. Bush’s Solicitor General is taking up CNN’s cause against President Trump.
Ted Olson, a partner in the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is helping with a lawsuit against the President, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, a Secret Service agent and several others who revoked the press pass of CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta.
CNN reports:
…CNN Worldwide chief counsel David Vigilante is joined by two prominent attorneys, Ted Boutrous and Theodore Olson. Both men are partners at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Last week, before he was retained by CNN, Boutrous tweeted that the action against Acosta “clearly violates the First Amendment.” He cited the Sherrill case.
“This sort of angry, irrational, false, arbitrary, capricious content-based discrimination regarding a White House press credential against a journalist quite clearly violates the First Amendment,” he wrote.
Olson was Solicitor General for the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2004.
All told, the CNN suit lists six defends, according to the network:
- President Trump,
- Chief of Staff John Kelly,
- Sanders,
- Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine,
- the director of the Secret Service,
- Secret Service agent identified as “John Doe.”
CNN will apparently expose his identity once they’re able to name him.
According to the network, the suit seeks an injunction against the White House’s action, and demands the return of Acosta’s press pass.
“CNN filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration this morning in DC District Court,” the CNN statement reads. “It demands the return of the White House credentials of CNN’s Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acosta’s First Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their Fifth Amendment rights to due process. We have asked this court for an immediate restraining order requiring the pass be returned to Jim, and will seek permanent relief as part of this process.”
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