【Gary Eberhart Archives】

UPDATE: Nov. 13,Gary Eberhart Archives 2018, 11:04 a.m. EST Updated to include White House statement on lawsuit.

CNN is taking their fight with President Donald Trump to court.

The network announced Tuesday morning they've filed a lawsuit against Trump and members of his administration. The suit claiming the White House's suspension of reporter Jim Acosta's press pass violated First and Fifth Amendment rights (freedom of the press and right to due process, respectively) as well as Violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The lawsuit also seeks to prevent revoking of press privileges from happening in the future.

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A total of six individuals and the U.S. Secret Service are named in the lawsuit: President Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Press Secretary (and sharer of altered video) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy, and John Doe, the currently unidentified Secret Service officer who took Acosta's press pass.

CNN sent a letter to the White House on Friday asking for his reinstatement and said Tuesday they're also seeking a preliminary injunction to allow Acosta back on his beat.

In the complaint, which you can read in full here, CNN notes Trump's ongoing battle with the press, the infamous November 7 press conference, and even Sanders' sharing of a video showing an altered interaction between Acosta and a White House aide who tried to take a microphone from Acosta.

Calling Acosta's banning, "an unabashed attempt to censor the press and exclude reporters from the White House who challenge and dispute the President’s point of view," CNN also used Trump's own words to make the case against him.

The President has actively criticized and discredited any journalist or media outlet he believes might report something he considers negative. As the President explained to Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes: “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”

CNN president Jeff Zucker, who hasn't been shy about defending his network against Trump, sent a note to staff in which he said he defended the decision to sue, saying, "we will always stand up for our rights. That is why we have filed suit."

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Trump has yet to respond; he's spent much of Tuesday morning ranting on Twitter against French president Emmanuel Macron for what appeared to be Macron's criticism of Trump during an Armistice Day speech.

Bringing this whole thing full circle, CNN is using super-lawyer Ted Olson as part of the legal team. Olson was an attorney for George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore case surrounding the recount of votes in Florida from the 2000 election and reportedly declined a position in the Trump White House.

Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents Association has issued a statement in which they give CNN and Acosta their full support.

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Later Tuesday morning, Sanders released a statement that claimed Acosta, "physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern, so that other reporters might ask their questions.” It's a notable quote because Sanders appears to have backtracked from her previous claims in which she accused Acosta of "physically placing his hands" on the White House aide.

Sanders also called the lawsuit "grandstanding" and said they "will vigorously defend against this lawsuit."

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This is a developing story...