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The Trump administration will close the “Correspondents’ Corridor” workspace that for years has been used by reporters covering the military, Defense Department officials announced late Monday in yet another sweeping change to journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
The new policy comes just days after a federal judge struck down the administration’s limits on press access to the complex. Those limits established a system where reporters could only receive press credentials — known as a “hard pass” that granted regular, unescorted access to the sprawling Pentagon grounds — if they pledged not to solicit and publish information not approved for release by the government.
Nearly all news outlets, including The Washington Times, refused to sign the new policy and lost their credentials.
With that policy now invalidated by a federal court, credentialed reporters were expected to regain access to the Pentagon. But the administration said it will instead close the dedicated press workspace in the Pentagon for security reasons and move reporters elsewhere.
“In assessing the department’s security posture following the court’s removal of all security screening authority, the department determined that unescorted access to the Pentagon cannot be responsibly maintained without the ability to screen credential holders for security risks,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement explaining the new policy. “Effective immediately, the Correspondents’ Corridor is closed. A new and improved press workspace will be established in an annex facility outside the Pentagon, but still on Pentagon grounds, and will be available when ready.”
It’s unclear when the new press facility will open. The Pentagon is appealing the federal court ruling.
The Pentagon Press Association said the announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”
“At such a critical time, we ask why the Pentagon is choosing to restrict vital press freedoms that help inform all Americans,” the association said in a statement.
By Tuesday evening The New York Times, which led the lawsuit, had filed a new request asking Judge Paul Friedman to block the new policy, saying the government was undermining the court’s previous order.
“The department was required, by law, to comply with that order fully and in good faith—not by attempting to nullify and evade that order under the pretext of ‘clarifying’ the policy’s unconstitutional provisions,” Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for the newspaper, told Judge Paul Friedman. “The department’s flagrant disobedience of this court — and the Constitution — should not be countenanced.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports
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