By Mike Scarcella and Jack Queen
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Washington ruled on Thursday that the Pentagon is hampering journalists in defiance of a court order that required it to restore access to credentialed reporters covering the seat of U.S. military power.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the Defense Department must comply with his earlier order that sided with The New York Times and other news organizations challenging restrictions imposed on them last year.
"The Department cannot simply reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking 'new' action and expect the Court to look the other way," Friedman wrote in his ruling. The judge called the Pentagon's actions a "blatant attempt to circumvent a lawful order of the Court."
Representatives for the New York Times, Justice Department and White House did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the ruling. The Pentagon does not comment on pending litigation.
Friedman at a March 30 hearing had expressed concerns that the Pentagon had issued revised restrictions for journalists earlier in the month that went even further than those he previously blocked.
The Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in October that journalists could be deemed security risks and have their press badges revoked if they solicited unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified, and in some cases unclassified, information.
Of the 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign an acknowledgment of the policy, with reporters who did not sign surrendering their press passes to the Pentagon.
Friedman ruled on March 20 that the policy violated protections for news gathering and due process in the U.S. Constitution. He issued an injunction requiring reporters' credentials to be restored immediately.
The New York Times, the lead plaintiff in the suit, told Friedman that the Pentagon had not complied with his order but instead released what it called a new "interim" policy defying the court ruling.
The policy, the Times said, bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets up rules governing when a reporter can offer anonymity to a source and leaves in place other rules that the court order rejected.
In a court filing in March, the Pentagon denied violating Friedman's prior order. "The Department was careful to address all of the legal defects that the court perceived in the prior policy," it said.
The Pentagon Press Association said the Pentagon's new rules are "a clear violation of the letter and spirit" of Friedman’s ruling. Reuters is a member of the association, which includes the Times, ABC News, Fox News and other outlets.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario, Nick Zieminski and David Gaffen)
