New York Times asks judge to quash subpoenas demanding reporters disclose confidential sources

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Jacob Shamsian

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The New York Times on Wednesday asked a federal judge to quash Justice Department subpoenas to journalists who reported on security flaws in President Donald Trump's new Air Force One plane.

David McCraw, the paper's top lawyer, called the subpoenas "abusive" and "improper" in a statement.

"As we set out in our motion, these subpoenas are brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage," McCraw said. "They violate the constitutional rights of The Times and its journalists. We are going to court to defend our journalists' rights to report freely on the administration and to provide the public with stories that matter."

The subpoenas were signed by Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and President Donald Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. A spokesperson for Clayton's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The five Times reporters who were subpoenaed Friday — Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt, and Adam Goldman — published an investigation the previous day about the security concerns with the new Air Force One, which was donated by Qatar. The modified Boeing 747-8 plane lacks the same sophisticated antimissile defense capabilities of the old aircraft, the Times reported.

The subpoenas require the reporters to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan and initially demanded they appear on Wednesday, the Times previously reported.

McCraw said he filed the motion to quash under seal due to a court order and is seeking to have the papers unsealed. US District Judge Ronnie Abrams — who leads the Manhattan federal courthouse's media access committee — is assigned to oversee grand jury issues this week.

The subpoenas became a topic during separate Capitol Hill hearings on Wednesday, as senators on the Intelligence Committee questioned Clayton about what Sen. Ron Wyden termed a "flagrant attack" on journalists, and Todd Blanche, Trump's pick for attorney general, was asked by a Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee about "targeting reporters."

At Clayton's confirmation hearing, Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, asked why he took the unusual step of signing off on subpoenas to journalists. Clayton said they were part of "an ongoing national security investigation."

"I'm happy to talk to you and this committee about our approach with the First Amendment, and our efforts in all cases to limit to the greatest extent possible any intrusion into the operation of the free press," Clayton said.

Clayton told Wyden that he followed "the process that we were required to follow."

"I operate by asking my team, 'What do you think?'" Clayton said. "Any action in this regard, you can be assured, was a consultative exercise with the prosecutors in my office."

The White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to oversee the leak investigation into the Times' reporting about Air Force One, according to the Times. During Blanche's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which took place at the same time as Clayton's, Sen. Peter Welch asked him if he supported Patel's effort to subpoena the Times journalists.

Blanche told Welch, a Vermont Democrat, that the Justice Department saw the journalists as "material witnesses, just like reporters would be witnesses to a car crash."

"The question we want to ask them is who provided them with classified national security information, which everybody in this body should want to protect — I would hope," Blanche said.

A spokesperson for The New York Times declined to comment on Blanche's and Clayton's comments to the Senate committees.

In an email to the newsroom Saturday, Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn called the subpoenas a "retaliatory abuse of prosecutorial power."

"This is a naked attempt to intimidate individual reporters and to prevent The Times and other independent news media from doing important reporting protected by the First Amendment," he said. "We will mount a full defense of our staff, of course. We will also fight to ensure that this blatant effort to suppress coverage of a matter clearly in the public interest in no way impedes accountability reporting of this or any other administration."

During the Trump administration, the Justice Department has taken a more aggressive stance toward journalists. Last year, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi made it easier for prosecutors to obtain search warrants and subpoenas for members of the media by scrapping Biden-era policies that required department officials to weigh alternative ways to obtain the information they sought.

This story has been updated.

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Jacob Shamsian

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Jacob Shamsian is a correspondent on Business Insider's Enterprise news desk. He is also a Global Reporter for Axel Springer.He was previously on BI's Legal Affairs desk, covering major litigation, courtroom trials, and the legal industry.Jacob has reported on the criminal trials of Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean "Diddy" Combs, R. Kelly, and Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey), He's also covered blockbuster civil trials, including both E. Jean Carroll v. Trump trials, the New York Attorney General's fraud trial against Trump, Sarah Palin v. The New York Times, and Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard.His stories have been cited in judicial rulings, lawsuits, letters from congressional committees, and in numerous media publications. He was a pool reporter in Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.Jacob has been interviewed on CNN, the docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly," ABC's "Good Morning America," and BBC News, among other programs. His work has been cited by media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine. He's also written for GQ, The Awl, The New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Modern Farmer.You can reach Jacob on Signal at JacobShamsian.07.Expertise:Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Donald Trump legal issues, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sam Bankman-Fried, Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey), R. KellyFeatures and scoops:Inside Jeffrey Epstein's plan to nab another billionaire clientLuigi Mangione came from privilege. Then his spine gave out, he went off the grid, and he got a gun.Why The New York Times' lawyers are inspecting OpenAI's code in a secretive roomWhen the crowd leaves Trump's hush-money trial, the judge spends his day in a very different kind of courtThe newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents have Donald Trump's name all over them. He had been secretly disguised as 'Doe 174.'FTX's victims may get all their money back. The judge sentencing Sam Bankman-Fried might not care.Trump's 'multitasking' defense is falling apart in courtI fled an extremist Jewish cult in Guatemala when I was 15 years old. I grew up with virtually no education and wasn't allowed to show love to my parents.The Anna Delvey Industrial Complex — and meSteve Bannon filmed Jeffrey Epstein for 15 hours. His 'documentary' has never surfaced.Fake letters and sex tapes: How R. Kelly tried to discredit and compromise his accusersWill Dominion end up owning MyPillow if it wins a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell? Here are 2 ways it could take control.

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