Politics

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman expressed concerns at a hearing in Washington that the Defense Department's revised restrictions for journalists covering the seat of U.S. military power went even further than earlier rules he had blocked.

"Is this Kafka? ​What's going on here?" the judge asked after reading a declaration by the New York Times describing reporters' ​difficulty accessing areas of the Pentagon. He did not issue a ruling but said the ⁠government must respond to the newspaper's declaration.

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.