The Trump administration has subpoenaed several New York Times reporters — and sought phone records tied to two of their spouses — as part of an effort to identify the confidential sources behind reporting on security deficiencies involving the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747 that President Donald Trump plans to use as Air Force One.
The DOJ hand-delivered grand jury subpoenas to the reporters just one day after the Times published a report earlier this month detailing shortcomings on the aircraft, including that it lacked defensive countermeasures found on the current Air Force One fleet, according to court filings.
In a motion filed Saturday and unsealed Monday by U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan, lawyers for The Times asked the court to quash the subpoenas, arguing the government was attempting to force reporters to reveal confidential sources.
Press freedom advocates quickly condemned the DOJ’s subpoenas. The Freedom of the Press Foundation called the move “gross,” criticizing the Justice Department for seeking communications involving journalists’ relatives.
“Even the Mafia says families are off limits,” FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern said in a statement. Stern argued that the administration was trying to “harass and intimidate reporters” instead of protect national security.
“The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting had angered the president,” Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum wrote Monday.
According to the filing, prosecutors also sought information related to calls and messages on the phones of two reporters’ spouses, a move the Times characterized as an escalation in the administration’s effort to identify the source of the leak.
The conflict stems from the newspaper’s reporting that the Boeing 747-8 gifted by Qatar lacked defensive capabilities, including antimissile systems, before entering service as Air Force One.
Trump appeared to acknowledge Sunday that additional work on the aircraft is needed.
Asked by a reporter at Joint Base Andrews why he was flying on an aircraft that lacked the defensive systems typically used to protect the president, Trump replied: “It has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out.”
In a separate report Monday, New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman wrote it remained unclear which upgrades Trump was referencing or whether his timeline was realistic. Still, she wrote, the president’s comments appeared to acknowledge that the aircraft’s security features were not yet as extensive as those built into planes designed specifically to serve as Air Force One.
The case is likely to become a closely watched legal battle over press freedoms, confidential sourcing and the government’s authority to compel journalists to testify in national security leak investigations.
