to pursue a leak investigation<\/a> to unmask confidential sources who had provided information to the newspaper about a national security matter.<\/p>\nOn Thursday, Judge Subramanian zeroed in on whether the government had heeded the law and its own regulations on investigations involving the news media. He said subpoenas to reporters \u201care not the first thing you do \u2014 they are the last thing you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of basic compliance with the law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
After Thursday\u2019s hearing, the Justice Department criticized Judge Subramanian, saying in a statement that his \u201cconduct overrides clear longstanding principles and common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake, this investigation remains ongoing,\u201d the Justice Department said, \u201cand we will pursue justice against those threatening national security by leaking classified information, a serious federal crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
After The Times moved to block the subpoenas, the government asked the judge to delay their effect for two weeks so it could investigate further.<\/p>\n
But at Thursday\u2019s hearing, on the 23rd floor of the federal courthouse in Manhattan, it was quickly apparent that Judge Subramanian was skeptical of the government\u2019s initial approach and request for delay.<\/p>\n
Within 10 minutes, he had laid out a stark choice to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither we can quash the subpoenas, or you could withdraw the subpoenas,\u201d the judge told Sean Buckley, a top official in the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan, who was speaking on behalf of the government.<\/p>\n
Judge Subramanian then grilled the prosecutors for the vast majority of the hourlong hearing, his demeanor at times resembling a teacher scolding his pupils. He asked few questions of The Times\u2019s lawyers; at one point, he even apologized to one of them and promised time to respond to some of the government\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n
Under the judge\u2019s questioning, the government acknowledged factual errors in its filings. It conceded that it had omitted significant information \u2014 including that the case pertained to journalists\u2019 records \u2014 when it asked a different federal judge to prevent a phone company from disclosing a record request.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inadvertent errors and the \u2018in hindsight we should have done things differently,\u2019 these things are piling up,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Buckley argued that the nature of The Times\u2019s reporting on sensitive national security matters had allowed for an exception to standard procedures. But he struggled to identify the precise legal rationale for that exception when the judge pressed him.<\/p>\n
Judge Subramanian appeared especially troubled by the government\u2019s omission of relevant details from its request for the nondisclosure order from the other federal judge. Neither The Times nor Judge Subramanian would have been aware of that request had the government not volunteered it days later.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor who handled that application, Kevin Sullivan, was seated in the gallery, but Judge Subramanian asked that he walk to the front of the courtroom to explain the irregularities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to do this again?\u201d the judge asked Mr. Sullivan at the end of his questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Your Honor, absolutely not,\u201d the prosecutor replied.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, Judge Subramanian asked the government to provide him with its private communications regarding the application for the nondisclosure order, a sign that the judge may not be finished with the matter.<\/p>\n
Mr. Buckley also acknowledged that the phone record subpoenas had inadvertently encompassed relatives of the Times reporters \u2014 including the mother of one and the spouses of two others \u2014 calling it an error and \u201ca consequence of trying to move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an hour of questioning on Thursday, prosecutors abruptly asked for a break so they could confer with The Times\u2019s lawyers. Ten minutes later, Mr. Buckley, who had left the courtroom while the other lawyers huddled, returned and announced that the government would withdraw its subpoenas.<\/p>\n
The Times praised the outcome of the hearing. \u201cToday\u2019s proceeding was an important affirmation of our country\u2019s commitment to a free press,\u201d David McCraw, the paper\u2019s top newsroom lawyer, said in a statement. \u201cWe are pleased that the government finally conceded that the subpoenas violated the law, but they should never have been issued in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the hearing wound down, Judge Subramanian asked a lawyer for The Times, David A. O\u2019Neil of Debevoise & Plimpton, if he had anything to add.<\/p>\n
Mr. O\u2019Neil said the government\u2019s conduct had been \u201creplete with bad faith\u201d and lamented a chilling effect that he said had affected the journalists\u2019 ability to report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe dispute any allegation of bad faith,\u201d Mr. Buckley said, \u201cand I\u2019ll just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Subramanian opened his mouth, as if to respond, then apparently thought better of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Justice Department on Thursday withdrew the subpoenas that sought phone records and grand jury testimony from New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[115325,128,112002,1452,17074,4469,1082,9,24,980,4468,112001,63,15945,115324,129,131,130,1069,1876],"class_list":["post-304377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-arun","tag-bronx","tag-confidential-status-of","tag-donald-j","tag-federal-courts-us","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-justice-department","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-times","tag-news-and-news-media","tag-news-sources","tag-nyc","tag-subpoenas","tag-subramanian","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}