New York Times files motion to quash justice department’s subpoenas | US justice system
The New York Times filed a motion Wednesday to quash justice department subpoenas against journalists reporting on security concerns about the new Air Force One, a gift from Qatar; This set off a major court fight over press freedom and the government’s ability to force reporters to identify sources.
David McCraw, the newspaper’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel, said in a statement: “As we stated in our motion, these subpoenas are being brought in bad faith to punish the Times for its reporting. They violate the constitutional rights of the Times and its journalists. We will go to court to defend our journalists’ rights to freely report on the administration and bring important stories to the public.”
The application was filed under seal in the southern district of New York, where journalists were summoned by subpoenas served last Friday to testify before a federal grand jury.
The subpoenas, some of which were sent to journalists at their homes, marked a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media leaks, which free press advocates quickly condemned as a government effort to intimidate news organizations. This follows an FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home and seizure of his electronic devices earlier this year.
The subpoenas were aimed at forcing reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan this week after they reported safety concerns about the new Air Force One.
The new jet in question, which was a gift from Qatar, where the Trump administration spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade, recently entered service. But the Republican president used a vintage Air Force One jet when leaving the NATO summit in Türkiye last week.
The Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that this change occurred at the insistence of the Secret Service and that the new aircraft lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including missile defense capabilities. Trump denied security concerns on social media.
The Justice Department justified the subpoenas by saying “to be clear, the target is not journalists, but leakers of classified information.”
“We value and appreciate the important role the press plays in this country,” the department said after the Times reported it had received the subpoenas. he said. “However [the] “The Department of Justice also plays an important role in ensuring that those entrusted with our nation’s secrets do what they are supposed to do with that information: that classified information is not shared.”
The justice department has developed and revised internal policies over the years that determine how it responds to media leaks.
Although departments in presidential administrations periodically seize phone records of individual journalists in the hope of identifying sources of national security news, it is extremely rare for the government to try to force a reporter to reveal his sources to a grand jury.
