White House boots WSJ reporter from Scotland trip travel pool after $10B lawsuit
The White House removed a Wall Street Journal reporter from its press pool who was scheduled to follow President Donald Trump to Scotland this weekend. Their removal comes in the wake of the newspaper's report alleging Trump sent a birthday letter speckled with sexual innuendo to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, which Trump has claimed is fake.
The president filed a lawsuit on Friday against the newspaper and several of its owner and several journalists seeking $10 billion in damages. Tarini Parti, a White House reporter for the Journal, had been scheduled to join the pool for the final two days of Trump's four-day golf outing in Turnberry and Aberdeen, Scotland.
'As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,' Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
'Due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible," she told Politico.
The Journal reported on July 17 that it had obtained access to a collection of letters gifted to Epstein on his 50th birthday, including one note bearing Trump's name in the form of a signature within the outline of an illustrated naked woman. Trump filed a lawsuit the next day claiming the newspaper had defamed him, 'because no authentic letter or drawing exists.'
A spokesperson for Dow Jones (WSJ's publisher) stated they have "full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit."
His administration's decision to bar a reporter from its presidential press pool seemingly in order to punish a news outlet for unfavorable coverage follows its banning of Associated Press reporters and photographers after the newswire service announced its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."
In response to the move this week, White House Correspondents' Association President Weijia Jiang said that the removal of the Journal reporter amounted to a violation of the First Amendment.
'This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,' she said. 'Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.
"We strongly urge the White House to restore the Wall Street Journal to its previous position in the pool and aboard Air Force One for the President's upcoming trip to Scotland. The WHCA stands ready to work with the administration to find a quick resolution.'
Parti, who was removed from the press pool, was not one of the two bylines on the Epstein story.
According to Donald Trump Golf Tracker, the president has golfed on 43 days out of his 184 in office, or about 23% of his second term.
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