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Donald Trump’s administration sought phone records of several New York Times journalists and even those of some of their relatives, according to a motion unsealed Monday – an unusually aggressive attempt to unmask the confidential sources of reporters who wrote about the president’s Air Force One jet from Qatar.
The Trump administration’s push to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas comes at a time when the executive branch’s relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The efforts, described in a letter-motion filed by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted – and also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question.
“Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on [۱ January] ۲۰۲۶, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the [justice] department’s investigation,” lawyers for the Times wrote in the letter. “That timeframe strongly suggests that the department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the [۸ and ۹ July] articles, but instead to forage for information about the journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”
The phone records subpoenas are on top of grand jury subpoenas served on ۱۰ July on three journalists that sought to compel testimony from the reporters about the identify of their sources. The Times has separately challenged those grand jury subpoenas, and US district Judge Arun Subramanian is scheduled to hear arguments on Thursday. The judge has also frozen enforcement of the phone records subpoenas pending a ruling on the newspaper’s motion to quash those.
Lawyers for the newspaper noted that some of the phone records subpoenas were issued on the same day as the grand jury ones, an additional one was issued on ۱۴ July, and another was issued on ۱۶ July – after the Times had already moved to quash the grand jury subpoenas.
In arguing for the phone records subpoenas to be spiked, the Times said the government had acted in “bad faith” and had ignored its own protocols by not giving the journalists advance notice that records were being sought and by demanding the information “without first conducting any serious investigation”.
The newspaper’s lawyers said the additional subpoenas call “into question the accuracy” of testimony given recently by Jay Clayton, the US attorney in Manhattan, where the grand jury subpoenas were issued. On Wednesday at his confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration’s director of national intelligence, Clayton said that “we followed the protocols” and that the government had taken “the least intrusive possible” steps.
The justice department has justified the grand jury subpoenas by saying that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are”.
The additional subpoenas included a request for phone records of one reporter’s mother and two of the journalists’ spouses. The motion noted that the mother in question is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships and that one of the two spouses is the general counsel of a law firm.
“The disclosure of additional subpoenas for confidential newsgathering information of the journalists is deeply concerning, revealing yet another instance of the alarming pattern of conduct detailed in the motion to quash,” the news organization’s lawyers wrote.
“These actions demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad faith attacks on the journalists, violations of the department’s own internal regulations and disregard for the law in this circuit intended to protect critical first amendment interests,” the motion stated, alluding to the part of the US constitution which addresses press freedom.
In a response posted Tuesday morning, the justice department said that it had complied with its own regulations in issuing the subpoenas and that it had taken investigative steps before seeking them. The department said it was authorized to delay disclosure of the subpoenas but had decided to alert lawyers for the journalists to give them an opportunity to challenge.
The grand jury subpoenas, delivered to reporters at their homes, marked a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media leaks that free press advocates swiftly condemned as a government effort to intimidate news organizations. It followed an FBI search in January of a Washington Post reporter’s home and the seizure of her electronic devices.
The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $۴۰۰m to retrofit and upgrade, recently entered service. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a Nato summit in Turkey earlier in July.
The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the US Secret Service – and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump denied security concerns.
