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President Donald Trump is free to bar the Associated Press from some White House media events for now, after a U.S. appeals court on Friday paused a lower court ruling mandating that AP journalists be given access. The divided ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit temporarily blocks an order by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who ruled on April 8 that the Trump administration must allow AP journalists access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and White House events while the news agency's lawsuit moves forward.

This seems, on the surface, like a victory for the legacy media - but it's not the victory they were hoping for. Here's why. On Tuesday, Judge Trevor McFadden granted the Associated Press (AP) an injunction against the Trump administration's banning them from press events in the Oval Office and the East Room. The AP claimed that the administration blocked their access because of editorial viewpoints, and Judge McFadden agreed. Here's Politico's Senior Political Affairs reporter Kyle Cheney's X thread with some details; this takes a little unpacking.BREAKING: Judge McFadden has *granted * the AP’s injunction against the White House’s...

THE HILL – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press’s access to key White House spaces after it exiled AP reporters over the organization’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” in its popular stylebook. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of President Trump, directed the White House to resume allowing the AP into the Oval Office, Air Force One and other limited spaces when they’re made available to other press pool members. The judge also granted the AP’s request for returned access to events open to all credentialed White House reporters, though...

Judge orders White House to lift restrictions on AP access

Federal Judge Timothy McFadden, a Trump appointee to the district court in Washington, refused on Tuesday to order the Trump administration to restart money flowing to Catholic groups supporting open borders and unlimited migration into the United States. According to the Washington Times, Judge McFadden says the dispute is a contract matter that should be taken up in the Court of Federal Claims. McFadden’s order comes after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on February 19th, challenging the administration’s decision to suspend federal funding for refugee resettlement. The move comes as...

A federal judge declined on Monday to temporarily restore the Associated Press’ access to some of President Donald Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One. US District Judge Trevor McFadden turned down a request from AP to temporarily lift a ban Trump imposed earlier this month to punish the news organization over its decision to continue using the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” even though Trump renamed the body of water “Gulf of America.”

A federal judge on Thursday delivered a major blow to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), denying their attempt to force the Trump administration into continuing taxpayer funding for their massive refugee resettlement operations. Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, rejected the bishops’ request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have forced the administration to immediately restore funding. The lawsuit, filed by the non-profit organization USCCB in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenged the Trump administration’s decision to cut off federal grants that fuel the mass resettlement of migrants across America—programs that have...

...Judge Trevor McFadden sided with two ranchers from Arizona—a border state that's a battleground in the presidential race—who claimed that the Biden administration's halt on the border wall, which violated laws requiring an environmental review, caused concrete damage to the environment. The case centers around whether the Biden administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not reviewing the potential environmental impact of halting construction.. The ruling came from the case Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security... "In sum, the Court finds that Smith suffered tangible harms that were caused by an influx...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Delaware man who threatened a Black police officer with a pole attached to a Confederate battle flag as he stormed the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison. Kevin Seefried, 53, tearfully apologized for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him. McFadden said it was deeply troubling that Seefried wielded the flagpole as a weapon against the officer. “Bringing a Confederate flag into one of our nation’s most sacred halls was outrageous,” the judge said. McFadden allowed Seefried to remain free until he...

A federal judge has overruled prosecutors and sided with a Jan. 6 defendant by refusing to hand down a prison sentence during sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden showed compassion for Nicholas Rodean of Frederick, Maryland. McFadden ruled that Rodean, who suffers from Aspergers, will not have to do years in prison and sentenced him to 240 days of home confinement and 5 years of probation. Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman detailed what happened in the court: “Just watched an amazing sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant Nicholas Rodean, who is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome. “He smashed...

One of the most prominent points made by supporters of the political prisoners arrested following the mostly peaceful protest at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, is that tons of video evidence shows law enforcement officers ushering in the protesters. If these people were breaking the law, doesn’t that mean the police were breaking it with them by pulling down the barricades, opening the doors, and ushering them in? Are we not supposed to listen to the instructions of law enforcement? This premise was tested with glorious results for January 6 defendant Matthew Martin. According to Sean Davis: This...

A federal judge on March 18 blocked a Washington, D.C., law that allowed children in the nation’s capital to receive a vaccine without parental consent.The parents who sued over the law appear likely to succeed in proving claims that the law violates federal statutes and will be irreparably harmed if a preliminary injunction weren’t entered, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote in a 38-page opinion.The D.C. Council passed the District’s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act in 2020. It lets children as young as 11 get a vaccine without permission from their parents.But the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of...

A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out a lawsuit from the 45th president late Tuesday that sought to prevent House lawmakers from obtaining his tax returns. US District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled that the House Ways and Means Committee has broad authority to obtain and potentially publish the former president’s tax returns — and described Trump’s claims as “wrong on the law.” “A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquires,” McFadden wrote in his ruling, according to the Associated Press. “Even the special solicitude accorded former presidents does not alter the outcome.” McFadden stayed...

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump, who was trying to block the release of his taxes to Congress. In his ruling, Judge Trevor McFadden deferred to the need for Congress to carry out "facially valid inquiries." "A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries," wrote McFadden. "Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome. The Court will therefore dismiss this case." The lawsuit brought by the former president stems from a 2019 request issued by the House Ways and Means...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rejecting the recommendation of prosecutors, a federal judge sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter to probation on Friday and suggested that the Justice Department was being too hard on those who broke into the Capitol compared to the people arrested during anti-racism protests following George Floyd’s murder. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those accused in 2020 summertime protests, reading out statistics on riot cases in the nation’s capital that were not prosecuted. “I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its...

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to release additional information about its purchases of organs harvested from aborted human fetuses, according to a statement issued by Judicial Watch on Monday. Two agencies under the HHS, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), both purchased organs from California-based Advanced Biosciences Resources (ABR) to use in HIV research. ABR partners with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to dismember fetuses and sell their parts for research. Judicial Watch initially filed a lawsuit in March 2019 after HHS failed to...

A federal judge granted Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s request for a preliminary injunction against Mayor Muriel Bowser allowing the congregation to resume worship services in the District of Columbia. “The Court determines that the church is likely to succeed in proving that the District’s actions violate [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993] RFRA,” wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden in a decision late Friday. “The District’s current restrictions substantially burden the church’s exercise of religion. More, the District has failed to offer evidence at this stage showing that it has a compelling interest...

A D.C. church that filed suit against the District of Columbia has won injunctive relief from a federal judge and can begin holding church services in the city again. Capitol Hill Baptist Church sued after twice being denied permission from the city to hold outdoor church services during the pandemic. While the lawsuit has not been decided, the judge’s decision in the case states that the church “is likely to succeed” in proving the District had hindered the church in holding services in violation of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

WASHINGTON – Deallto McQuil Key Davis, 25, of Maryland, pled guilty today to conspiring to defraud Wells Fargo Bank out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Washington Field Office Criminal Division.            Davis pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Davis faces...

A federal judge on Friday issued a stay of House Democrats' lawsuit aimed at obtaining President Trump's tax returns, after an appeals court agreed to rehear a different case that touches on some of the same legal issues. Judge Trevor McFadden, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., and a Trump appointee, said in a court filing that the tax-return case is on hold "pending further order of this Court." McFadden had initially put the case on hold in January, until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in a separate lawsuit over House Democrats' subpoena...