At a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democrats grilled Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, over subpoenas he issued to four NY Times reporters.
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado asked Clayton, who as Manhattan U.S. Attorney issued the subpoenas just hours after the Times reported Thursday on security concerns related to a jet gifted by Qatar for President Trump to use as Air Force One, whether he conferred with officials in Washington before hauling the reporters into court.
“My question is whether you consulted or anybody in the Southern District of New York consulted with anybody in Washington, D.C., at the White House or at the Department of Justice before the subpoenas were issued,” Bennet asked at the hearing. “They were issued within just hours of the reporting. It struck me, as someone who worked at the DOJ, as an unusually short period of time.”
Clayton said he issued the subpoenas in the interest of national security after conferring with officials at the Department of Justice.
“The protocols require consultation with the DOJ in Washington and we followed the protocols,” said Clayton.
“It is vitally important that if national security issues are at stake, that there is not a huge blind spot, that someone can use the ability to provide information to journalists to get it out there, including our adversaries, without any potential for discovering how that happened,” he added.
N.Y. Senator Kristen Gillibrand told Clayton she believed the subpoenas were issued with “unnecessary urgency,” and asked why the reporters were served at their homes, in some cases by federal agents, in lieu of the subpoenas being delivered at the NY Times newsroom.
“Normally, a subpoena would be issued at their place of business, a corporate office, but again, delivering it to a private home seems quite aggressive,” said Gillibrand. “So, can you address the urgency and the home service?”
Clayton spoke generally about DOJ procedure, which he said could be influenced by factors including “the potential spoliation… of information and the timeliness of the threat,” but declined to provide specific details regarding the subpoenas issued to The Times journalists.
The Times denounced the subpoenas issued to its reporters as an attack on the media by Trump’s White House and a threat to the first amendment.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” Times newsroom lawyer David McCraw said in a statement on Friday.
The reporters who received subpoenas, including Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt, reported last Wednesday that Trump flew to Turkey on an old Air Force One due to security concerns expressed by the Secret Service, according to the Times. Then on Thursday, they reported that a new jet donated by Qatar lacked anti-missile capabilities and other security features included in the older aircraft.
The Times cited anonymous sources in both publications.