New York Times sues Pentagon over new reporting restrictions
The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon on Thursday, accusing the defense department of infringing on the constitutional rights of its journalists with its new reporting restrictions.
The restrictions, which went into effect in October, require reporters to sign a pledge that they will not obtain unauthorized material and restricts access to certain areas unless accompanied by an official – a stark departure from previous guidelines. In a summary of the filing, the New York Times called this policy “exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment.”
The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, HuffPost and trade publication Breaking Defense are among the US outlets that refused to sign the agreement.
In the lawsuit, the New York Times is asking the US district court in Washington to issue an order stopping the Pentagon from enforcing the press policy. The New York Times “intends to vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability,” the company said in a statement.
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Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the Navy admiral who reportedly issued orders to fire upon survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat, is expected on Capitol Hill on Thursday to provide a classified briefing to congressional lawmakers overseeing national security, the Associated Press reports.
Trump administration officials have defended carrying out the 2 September follow-up strike by arguing that the objective was to ensure the complete destruction of the boat – essentially mirroring the language in a secret justice department office of legal counsel (OLC) memo that purportedly said it was permissible for the US to use lethal force against unflagged vessels carrying cocaine since the cartels use the proceeds to fund violence.
Still, questions continue to mount over the legality of the attack, particularly around the reasoning of the second strike and what orders the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, gave.
“This is an incredibly serious matter. This is about the safety of our troops. This is an incident that could expose members of our armed services to legal consequences,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday. “And yet the American public and the Congress are still not hearing basic facts.”
Hegseth, who is in hot water after a Department of Defense report concluded that he had violated departmental policies when he shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat in March, has sought to downplay his own involvement in the strike. Democratic senator Mark Warner has called for his resignation and Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said that Hegseth does not have her support.
The briefing comes as The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, accusing the defense department of violating the first amendment with its new reporting restrictions.
In other developments:
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues as federal agents descended upon New Orleans on Wednesday, sending fear through the region’s Latino community and prompting businesses to close. Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief who has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, was spotted leading a group of masked agents through the historic French quarter as one woman heckled the agents.
The operation in New Orleans came as Donald Trump continued his xenophobic attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters on Wednesday that “those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country” and that congresswoman Ilhan Omar should be “thrown the hell out”.
In more immigration news, an Amnesty International report published Thursday found that detainees at the Florida immigration detention facility, “Alligator Alcatraz,” face “harrowing human right violations.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is also in the process of creating a new internal database of non-US citizens who are “employed or affiliated” with the government department, a sensitive memo leaked to the Guardian has revealed.
Trump also announced on Wednesday that he is repealing the Biden-era federal fuel economy standards.
