The Trump administration hit four New York Times journalists with subpoenas, ordering them to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan over an article about President Trump’s Qatari-donated Air Force One, the newspaper reported.
The subpoenas, filed in New York’s Southern District, were issued on Friday, a move the Times said was “an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.”
In some of the cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at the reporters homes, the newspaper said.
Those hit with subpoenas included Times journalists Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt. They have been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday and testify “in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law,” the paper said.
Neither the White House nor the Southern District returned a request for comment on the subpoenas Saturday.
The four journalists reported on two stories about security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One. In both articles, they cite sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity over the sensitive security issues.
The Times reported that Trump was asked to fly out of Turkey on an old Air Force One plane as a security precaution since the new Qatari-donated one lacked several security features, including anti-missile capabilities. The request to swap planes was made by the Secret Service.
The new jet, which President Donald Trump received as a gift from Qatar, entered service last week.
Before the first Times article was published, a senior official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted a reporter and a senior editor at the Times to ask that the article be held, calling it an issue of national security, the paper reported. The FBI official wouldn’t explain the national security concern, and demanded the Times disclose its source, but the newspaper refused to do so.
“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,” said David McCraw, the Times’s head legal counsel said in a statement.
“Our journalists report the facts and advance the American public’s right to know how their government is operating and their taxpayer dollars are being used,” McCraw added. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”
The Times is currently a party to several lawsuits involving the Trump administration.
During his first term, Trump suggested that the press constituted an “enemy” of the American people. Since returning to the White House last year, he has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history.
Trump’s pattern of attacks against news outlets and media figures he believes are overly critical of him has included filing lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, threatening to revoke TV broadcast licenses and seeking to bend news organizations and social media companies to his will.
The president sued the Times last year, accusing it of defaming him, disparaging his reputation and seeking to undermine his 2024 candidacy.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department sought to compel testimony from journalists at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, but withdrew the subpoenas after both news organizations fought back in sealed filings.
In January, FBI agents took the rare step of searching the home of a Washington Post reporter, Hannah Natanson, as part of an investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified material. The agents seized phones, laptops and a smartwatch after executing a search warrant. Natanson had spent months speaking with government employees while reporting on the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal work force.
With News Wire Services