Judge Appears Skeptical Of Pentagon’s Latest Press Restrictions: ‘is This A Catch-22?’

A federal judge expressed skepticism Monday about the Pentagon’s new press access policy after invalidating an earlier version that prompted almost all holders of media credentials to turn them in.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman convened a hearing in response to complaints from the New York Times that the Pentagon is defying his earlier order to restore access by subsequently shutting down the decades-old Correspondents Corridor and giving journalists unescorted access only to a library at the margins of the complex.

Friedman appeared troubled by a declaration Times reporter Julian Barnes filed with the court saying the new arrangements appeared to require credentialed reporters to travel through Pentagon hallways that officials have declared off-limits or take a shuttle bus that is also typically off limits to journalists.

“How weird is that?” the judge said. “Is this a Catch-22? Is this Kafka?”

Justice Department attorney Sarah Welch told Friedman that the information given to the Times may have preceded the new policy and that journalists could access a temporary workspace directly from the Pentagon parking lot or take the shuttle.

Friedman also indicated he was troubled by an aspect of the new policy that allows journalists’ credentials to be revoked if the reporters offer anonymity while asking for information they know to be classified or barred from release under specific laws. The judge said his earlier ruling found that, under the First Amendment, merely asking a question could never be punished.

“I thought I answered that question,” Friedman, a Clinton appointee, said. “A journalist can always ask and they can ask anybody.”

The Times sued the Defense Department in December after it said it would require all journalists with Pentagon credentials to sign a pledge not to ask officials for information they aren’t authorized to release. Reporters for most news organizations refused to sign, saying doing so would interfere with their daily reporting and reduce their work to relaying only the Trump administration’s official line.

Trump administration officials celebrated the departure of longtime journalists and invited numerous Trump-friendly media personalities and influencers to take credentials even though few said they intended to cover the Pentagon in-person or on a regular basis.

In a ruling earlier this month, Friedman concluded that the policy issued last year violated the First Amendment. He ordered the Pentagon to restore Times reporters’ credentials and cleared the way for others to get their passes back without signing the pledge devised last year.

However, defense officials instead chose to shut down access for reporters to the bulk of the building. They said they would eventually house journalists in a new annex which has not been built yet.

“This so-called interim policy is a thumb of the nose to the court,” a lawyer for the Times, Ted Boutrous, told the judge. “This is meant to purge the Pentagon of reporters who are engaging in independent reporting.”

Boutrous called the new policy “gibberish” and said the administration’s claims that it was not defying the court were absurd.

“This is just gaslighting by the government,” Boutrous said. “They have made the press credential we fought so hard to get back into a meaningless piece of plastic.”

Friedman did appear to endorse one aspect of the new policy, suggesting that it doesn’t discriminate between friendly and unfriendly reporters. “Why can’t they bar everyone, so long as they’re not picking and choosing … ?” he asked.

The judge did not rule immediately. He also gave government lawyers until the end of Tuesday to respond in writing to some of the Times’ contentions.

The newspaper’s attorney urged the judge to act quickly in light of the continuing military action in Iran. “Time is of the essence. There’s a war going on and the American people are being deprived of information that’s important to everyone,” Boutrous said.

Following the hearing, which lasted almost two hours, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth clarified aspects of the new policy.

Commander Timothy Parlatore told reporters that challenges to journalists’ Pentagon passes would not be based on reviewing published work. Instead, he said, such reviews would be initiated only by reports from Defense Department employees or servicemembers that journalists were seeking classified or legally restricted information.

“Anytime a person with a security clearance has somebody that approaches them trying to solicit that information, they're supposed to report that,” Parlatore said.

Parlatore also said the administration’s efforts to limit journalists’ access to the massive military headquarters has already been a success, resulting in fewer leaks of classified information.

“This policy, honestly, has been effective,” he said. “A year ago, there was constant leaks and constant reports about classified things, and that has largely stopped. Venezuela, Iran, we've been able to execute those missions perfectly without, without the same worry of the classified leaks.”