On July 10, the Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenaed New York Times journalists Tyler Page, Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, and Eric Schmitt. Two spouses among these journalists and one of their mothers were additionally subpoenaed, as well as third-party phone service providers to access the text messages and other phone records of the journalists. One of those spouses enjoys a senior role at a major law firm; the Trump administration has been pressuring major law firms with potentially illegal executive orders. The subpoenas were sent by Jay Clayton, attorney from Southern District of New York and a Trump ally nominated to be director of national intelligence.
The subpoenas were an attempt to uncover the anonymous sources that gave information to the journalists regarding the security flaws of Trump’s new Air Force One plane, which was a bribe from Qatar. The reporters expressed legitimate national security concerns regarding the aircraft. Trump’s Secret Service recommended him to return from a NATO summit aboard an older aircraft, because the Qatari bribe lacked the defensive capabilities that other Air Force One planes had.
The New York Times has sought to quash the subpoenas. The newspaper noted that the DOJ violated its own internal guidelines regarding media subpoenas, as they “waited a week to notify The Times about the phone record requests…” It also noted that some of the subpoenas go back before reporting on the jet, indicating that the DOJ wants information on the general sources of the journalists.
