Left: Mike Lindell, also known as the My Pillow Guy, listens to former President Donald Trump speak in July 2024 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Right: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responds to a reporter”s question before the start of a meeting with visiting Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles at the Pentagon, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta).
Mike Lindell, known for his controversial stance on the 2020 election and as the CEO of a prominent pillow company, has been granted press access at the Pentagon. Meanwhile, the New York Times has been excluded, prompting a federal lawsuit that claims Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s media policies are unconstitutional.
The Times’ lead attorney, Ted Boutrous, who has a history of representing high-profile clients like Mary Trump and CNN, filed a 40-page complaint. He argues that Hegseth’s restrictive media policy should be blocked and deemed unlawful under the First Amendment.
The dispute arises from the Pentagon’s requirement for media outlets to sign agreements that restrict them from reporting unapproved information, even if it’s unclassified. This led numerous mainstream media journalists to vacate the Pentagon in October, surrendering their credentials. Several conservative media organizations also refused to comply with a policy that threatened expulsion or severe penalties for reporting unauthorized information, labeling such actions as potential “security or safety risks.”
The lawsuit filed by the Times highlights that under Hegseth’s regulations, the Pentagon Facility Alternate Credentials (PFACs) grant the Defense Department unchecked power to suspend or revoke a journalist’s credentials for conducting lawful reporting, both inside and outside Pentagon premises. The rules are criticized for being neither reasonable nor neutral in viewpoint.
The lawsuit states, “This is precisely the kind of speech and press censorship that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have consistently found to violate the First Amendment.” It describes the policy as a “significant break from established practices,” causing extensive harm to the Times, its reporters, and the American public.
The suit further argues that allowing Mike Lindell and other pro-Trump figures access to the Pentagon over journalists who refuse to sign the restrictive policy underscores the problematic nature of the current media access rules.
“While Plaintiffs and many other journalists and news organizations no longer possess PFACs because they refused to accede to a Policy that would restrict independent reporting, the Department has welcomed what it calls the ‘next generation of the Pentagon press corps’ — individuals and media outlets strongly supportive of the Trump administration and whose viewpoints the Department favors,” the complaint went on. “Among that group are Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow, who has promised to ‘make [the Administration] proud’ with his Pentagon coverage; Laura Loomer, an influential pro-Trump activist; and Raheem Kassam, editor in chief of the National Pulse, who described his publication as ‘basically an industry mag/site for MAGA world.’”
“These developments place the purpose and effect of the Policy in stark relief: to fundamentally restrict coverage of the Pentagon by independent journalists and news organizations, either by limiting what kind of information they can obtain and publish without incurring punishment, or by driving them out of the Pentagon with an unconstitutional Policy,” the lawsuit added.
Read the complaint in full here.
