{"id":180694,"date":"2026-03-31T10:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180694\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:50:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:50:35","slug":"new-york-times-says-pentagon-flouting-judges-order-on-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180694\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times says Pentagon flouting judge’s order on access"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Pentagon has flouted a court order<\/a> blocking it from enforcing a policy limiting news reporters\u2019 access to the Defense Department\u2019s headquarters, a New York Times attorney asserted Monday in urging a federal judge to compel the government\u2019s compliance with the 10-day-old order.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman didn\u2019t immediately rule from the bench after hearing a second round of arguments from lawyers for the newspaper and the Trump administration. The Times claims Pentagon officials have implemented a revised press policy that circumvents the judge\u2019s March 20 ruling.<\/p>\n

Friedman sided with The Times earlier this month in deciding that the Pentagon\u2019s new credential policy violated journalists\u2019 constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He ordered Pentagon officials<\/a> to reinstate the press credentials of seven Times reporters and stressed that his decision applies to \u201call regulated parties.\u201d <\/p>\n

Times attorney Theodore Boutrous said the Pentagon responded to Friedman\u2019s order by imposing a new, revised policy that imposes \u201cradical new restrictions\u201d on journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve only made things worse,\u201d Boutrous said.<\/p>\n

Government attorney Sarah Welch said the Defense Department\u2019s revised policy on media access to the Pentagon includes several \u201csafe harbors\u201d protecting reporters engaging in routine forms of newsgathering. \u201cThe department has fully complied in good faith with that (March 20) order,\u201d Welch told the judge.<\/p>\n

Contradictions arise in Pentagon\u2019s new approach<\/p>\n

In a court filing<\/a> Sunday, Times national security reporter Julian Barnes said Pentagon staff also explained to him and his colleagues last week that their new credentials would give them access a new press area located in the Pentagon library. But the only way for the reporters to access the library is through a corridor or on a shuttle bus that they didn\u2019t have permission to use, Barnes noted \u2014 prompting a pointed response from Friedman. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow weird is that?\u201d the judge said. \u201cIs it Catch-22? Is it Kafka? What\u2019s going on here?\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, reporters from mainstream news outlets walked out<\/a> of the building rather than agree to the new rules. The Times sued the Pentagon<\/a> and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December to challenge the policy.<\/p>\n

Times attorneys accused the Pentagon of violating the judge\u2019s March 20 order, \u201cboth in letter and spirit,\u201d by issuing a revised \u201cinterim\u201d policy that bars credentialed reporters from entering the building without an escort. Plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers say the latest policy also imposes unprecedented rules dictating when reporters can offer anonymity to sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent is obvious: The Interim Policy is an attempted end-run around this Court\u2019s ruling,\u201d newspaper attorneys wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pentagon says it\u2019s complying<\/p>\n

Government lawyers said the Pentagon\u2019s revised policy fully complies with the judge\u2019s directives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn effect, Plaintiffs ask this Court to expand the Order to prohibit the Department from ever addressing the security of the Pentagon through a press credentialing policy with conditions that may address similar topics or concerns as the enjoined conditions. The Order does not say that, and this Court should not read it to say that,\u201d Justice Department attorneys wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell has said the administration would appeal Friedman\u2019s March 20 decision.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon Press Association, which includes Associated Press reporters, said the Pentagon\u2019s interim policy preserves provisions that Friedman deemed to be unconstitutional while also adding new restrictions on credential holders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interim Policy moves reporters\u2019 workspace to an annex facility outside the Pentagon and prohibits any reporter from moving within the Pentagon itself without an escort, further limiting their ability to actually do journalism in the forum designated specifically for that purpose,\u201d an association attorney wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The current Pentagon press corps is comprised mostly of conservative outlets that agreed to the policy. Journalists from outlets that refused to consent to the new rules, including from the AP, have continued reporting<\/a> on the military.<\/p>\n

Friedman, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his order that recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela and Iran highlight the need for public access to information about government activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Pentagon has flouted a court order blocking it from enforcing a policy limiting news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10049,288,24026,24027,153,157,417,14670,72910,1075,9,11,10,69642,1351,87,72909,1350,69643,1352,421,420],"class_list":["post-180694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bill-clinton","tag-business","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-julian-barnes","tag-military-and-defense","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-paul-ben-victor","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-sarah-welch","tag-sean-parnell","tag-theodore-boutrous","tag-u-s-department-of-defense","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}