WASHINGTON — Reporters for POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW were allowed back onto White House grounds Thursday, after Secret Service officers had turned them away earlier in the day despite a federal judge’s order to restore their access. The White House told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that the reporters’ access had been restored as of 9:55 a.m. The administration submitted its response shortly before a 12:30 p.m. deadline set by the judge, who had ordered credentials reinstated for at least two weeks while the legal dispute continues. The outlets’ lead attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., had alerted the court that reporters were still being denied entry and asked Kelly to hold an immediate hearing. A POLITICO reporter who was stopped Thursday morning later returned to the White House and had his pass returned. The three organizations had been barred from the grounds since Saturday, when their reporters were denied entry and their passes confiscated. President Donald Trump had directed officials to revoke their access after criticizing their reporting. Asked last week why he took that step, Trump said it was due to “cumulative stories over the last few years” and added, “You get sick of it.” In an order issued Thursday, Kelly questioned the administration’s claim that the revocations were based on national security. He wrote that the record before the lawsuit did not show that security concerns motivated the decision, and noted that Trump had publicly focused instead on complaints about the outlets’ reporting. The dispute unfolded on the day Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the White House. Lawyers for the news organizations argued that access was particularly important during the visit; the Justice Department had resisted immediate restoration, citing national security. The reinstatement does not settle the broader case over the administration’s decision to bar the journalists. It also remained unclear whether five television networks that had stopped broadcasting footage of the president would resume doing so. ABC, scheduled to serve as the in-town television pool for Xi’s visit, had not begun those duties as of Thursday, according to the report. Other news organizations have supported the outlets’ lawsuit in court and some have withheld or declined to publish photographs in solidarity. The access dispute raises a broader question for government accountability: whether officials can restrict journalists’ access in response to coverage they dislike.