WASHINGTON -- Breitbart News Network, a media organization once headed by Stephen Bannon, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, isn't qualified to hold a congressional press pass, a committee of journalists who oversee news media access to Congress decided Tuesday.
The committee tabled indefinitely a Breitbart request for press accreditation. Breitbart formally applied several months ago for passes that enable reporters to freely move about the heavily guarded Capitol.
The rejection wasn't a judgment on Breitbart's news coverage but a reflection on its technical qualifications, members of the committee said. News organizations must show the volunteer credential panel that they aren't owned or controlled by an organization that lobbies Congress, a step designed to prevent political operatives from acting as journalists.
The White House applies less scrutiny to applications for media credentials and has accredited a wide variety of news organizations, including Breitbart.
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Breitbart's profile soared during the presidential campaign when it backed Trump and promoted many of his anti-immigrant, pro-nationalist policies. Its best-known writer was the provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who resigned from the site in February.
Breitbart's application for permanent congressional credentials has long been complicated by potential conflicts of interest, including its connection to Bannon, who was its executive chairman before becoming Trump's campaign chairman in August.
Bannon -- who once boasted that Breitbart was "the platform for the alt-right" -- is now Trump's chief strategist; he formally resigned from Breitbart last fall. The term alt-right is defined by some as a far-right movement whose followers hold anti-Semitic and sexist beliefs and who desire a whites-only state. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bannon defined the term differently, saying the alt-right is composed of "younger people who are anti-globalists, very nationalist, terribly anti-establishment."
Congressional media gallery rules state that applicants "must not be engaged in any lobbying or paid advocacy, advertising, publicity or promotion work for any individual, political party, corporation, organization, or agency of the U.S. Government."
Breitbart has faced questions from the five-member committee about its owners and investors and its Washington headquarters, a Capitol Hill townhouse it calls "the embassy."
Although Breitbart presented documentation of Bannon's resignation from the company, it was unable to resolve the ownership question to the committee's satisfaction.
Specifically, the panel expressed concerns about the connections between Breitbart and the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based research organization focused on investigating money and politics. The institute was co-founded by Bannon and is funded by Robert Mercer, a billionaire hedge-fund manager and conservative political donor who is also an investor in Breitbart. Mercer's daughter, Rebekah Mercer, is chairman of the institute's board.
Breitbart did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The committee's vote to table Breitbart's application means that it won't grant its reporters any more temporary credentials when the current ones expire at the end of May. The committee said that it would reconsider Breitbart for credentials if it remedies the masthead and office issues.
Without temporary or permanent press passes, Breitbart journalists can still enter congressional facilities, but they would have to do so through public access, an inconvenient step.
A Section on 04/26/2017