The White House on Monday pulled The Wall Street Journal from the press pool traveling with President Donald Trump to Scotland after the paper reported the president sent a “bawdy” birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.
“Thirteen diverse outlets will participate in the press pool to cover the President’s trip to Scotland. Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a statement provided to Business Insider.
Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, declined to comment when reached by BI.
The press pool is a limited, rotating group of reporters that is granted access to private spaces, like the Oval Office or Air Force One, to cover the president. Prior to the current administration, pool assignments were determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent, nonprofit group made up of reporters who cover the White House.
In February, Leavitt said the White House, not the WHCA, would determine which outlets cover presidential events going forward. At the time, the WHCA said the move “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”
Weijia Jiang, president of the WHCA, called the move “deeply troubling” in a statement Monday afternoon.
“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media,” Jiang said. ‘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.”
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The Journal on Thursday reported that Trump sent Epstein a birthday letter in 2003 that featured a drawing of a nude woman and said, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump denied the report and on Friday filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson, and the Journal reporters who wrote the story, accusing them of defamation and seeking at least $10 billion in damages.
In a statement provided to BI on Friday, a Dow Jones spokesperson said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
In February, the White House barred The Associated Press from an executive order signing in the Oval Office after the news agency said it would continue to use the name Gulf of Mexico instead of “Gulf of America.”
An appeals court in June ruled the president was allowed to limit AP’s access to the Oval Office.
