Court House News: “A Newsweek reporter has brought a federal complaint to access records on President Donald Trump’s classified briefings, as well as details on how the government investigated the likes of Stephen Bannon for a security clearance. Jeffrey Stein’s Jan. 31 lawsuit comes just days after Trump announced that he would give the chief strategist he picked out of the Breitbart news organization a seat on the National Security Council normally reserved for generals. A national-security correspondent for Newsweek, Stein has been after records on the Trump administration’s access to state secrets since before there even was a Trump administration. On May 5, 2016 – the same day the Washington Post ran a headline about the possibility that Trump would receive classified briefings (“It Might Not Go Well,” the headline said) – Stein filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act for records about the briefings. The complaint quotes those initial requests as stating point-blank that Stein “has no interest in learning what Mr. Trump is briefed about; he is only interested in the process, and he is specifically interested in records discussing any security concerns.” Nine months later, Stein says the CIA and seven other agencies that he pressed for similar information have no legal basis to deny his requests. The 40-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that Stein resubmitted his requests in July, when Trump’s briefings began as the official nominee for the Republican Party…”