{"id":757004,"date":"2026-07-11T16:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757004\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T16:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:39:19","slug":"trump-administration-subpoenas-new-york-times-journalists-over-new-air-force-one-reporting-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757004\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration subpoenas New York Times journalists over new Air Force One reporting | New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration has issued subpoenas to several New York Times<\/a> journalists after the newspaper reported on security concerns with the president\u2019s new plane, according to the outlet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Times said its journalists were subpoenaed on Friday by the US justice department to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan five days later, marking the latest effort by the Trump White House<\/a> to compel testimony from journalists under the threat of penalty. Agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the Times reporters at their homes, the paper added.<\/p>\n

A US justice department statement responding to a request for comment about the subpoenas mentioned investigating \u201cbreaches of national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are,\u201d the statement said, in part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe \u2026 are not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it\u2019s OK to leak classified information impacting national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, press freedom advocates condemned the subpoenas.<\/p>\n

A statement from the Washington DC-based National Press Club said<\/a> federal prosecutors\u2019 \u201cdecision to subpoena journalists at the New York Times should alarm every American because it threatens the public\u2019s constitutional right to an independent press\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Press Club calls on the justice department to immediately withdraw these subpoenas and reaffirm a principle that has long distinguished the United States: a free and independent press serves the people, not the government,\u201d the organization continued.<\/p>\n

The Freedom of the Press Foundation\u2019s director of advocacy, Seth Stern, said in a separate statement that \u201cwhen the government claims it needs to investigate journalists to protect national security, it really means its own reputational security\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration\u2019s embarrassment\u201d over the reported security concerns \u201cdoes not supersede the need for a free and independent press\u201d, Stern\u2019s statement also said.<\/p>\n

Times lawyer David McCraw said in his own statement that \u201cthe appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the [US] constitution and the press freedom it protects\u201d.<\/p>\n

The airplane at the center of the Times report was provided by Qatar as a $400m gift. It took Donald Trump to North Dakota on its 1 July maiden voyage, and it more recently flew the president to a Nato summit in Turkey.<\/p>\n

But Trump then flew part of the way back to the US on an older-model Air Force One presidential jet. That happened amid the collapse of a ceasefire with Iran, which shares a border with Turkey and which the US and Israel launched war against in late February.<\/p>\n

Amid speculation that the president\u2019s Qatari-gifted jet lacked certain security systems, the Times \u2013 citing anonymous sources \u2013 then reported<\/a> that the new Air Force One lacked antimissile capabilities as well as other protective features that older models are equipped with. The Times further reported that Trump flew some of the return trip from Turkey on an older Air Force One at the request of the Secret Service.<\/p>\n

Trump subsequently denied any security concerns, telling reporters who were accompanying him that no safeguard-related worries factored into the decision to fly only part of the way home in the new Air Force One.<\/p>\n

The president additionally brushed off a question about whether Iran had subjected Air Force One to any credible threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a threat all the time,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cI\u2019m number one on their list.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House also denied that the new Air Force One had any shortcomings in terms of security, calling it \u201cstate-of-the-art\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new Air Force One \u2026 has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff,\u201d White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. Cheung\u2019s statement then suggested Trump had not flown the whole way back to the US from Turkey on the new Air Force One because it was a \u201cmisdirection\u201d against potential threats.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a> reported that prior to publishing its article on the security concerns and the plane, a senior FBI official contacted the paper and asked it to withhold its piece for national security purposes \u2013 while declining to provide details.<\/p>\n

After going forward with its reporting on the plane, Julian E Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt were among the Times journalists who received subpoenas for grand jury testimony, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Reports in June indicated that justice department officials purportedly investigating national security leaks had similarly subpoenaed journalists from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. However, the justice department withdrew the subpoenas after the outlets contested them in sealed court filings.<\/p>\n

In the US, grand juries are one of the methods by which prosecutors can criminally charge defendants.<\/p>\n

There have been other instances of the Trump administration<\/a> targeting news organizations as well as other media figures and institutions across both of his presidencies.<\/p>\n

One such recent and prominent example particularly dealing with the news media involved the Trump administration\u2019s pursuit of criminal charges against journalists Don Lemon<\/a> and Georgia Fort and photographer Junn Bollman for covering a protest in January at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor.<\/p>\n

Also in January, a federal grand jury in Maryland indicted a US military contractor on accusations of leaking classified documents in a case which led to an FBI raid<\/a> on a Washington Post reporter\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration has issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after the newspaper reported on security…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-757004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}