The Department of Justice is seeking phone records from several New York Times journalists and their family members as part of an investigation into leaks regarding a $400 million Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. The newspaper is challenging the subpoenas, citing concerns over government overreach and the protection of confidential sources.
Expansion of Subpoenas to Journalists’ Families
The Trump administration’s efforts to identify confidential sources have extended beyond the reporters themselves to include their immediate family members. According to The Associated Press, the Department of Justice requested communication records for the spouses of two journalists and the mother of another reporter. The motion filed by the Times noted that the mother in question is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships, and one of the two spouses serves as the general counsel of a law firm. These requests for phone records are supplemental to grand jury subpoenas issued on July 10, which sought to compel testimony from three journalists regarding their sources for articles published on July 8 and 9. The Times has characterized these actions as an alarming pattern of conduct that seeks to crack down on independent reporting on President Trump’s administration.
Legal Challenges and Accusations of Bad Faith
The newspaper has filed a motion to quash the subpoenas, arguing that the government has acted in “bad faith” and ignored its own protocols by failing to provide advance notice or conduct a serious investigation before demanding information. Lawyers for the Times contend that the investigation’s scope exceeds the articles about the government’s $400 million jet upgrade, which was a gift from Qatar. In a letter-motion filed over the weekend, the outlet’s legal team highlighted that some subpoenas requested records dating back to January 1, 2026, long before the events surrounding the July articles.
“Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on January 1, 2026, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the Department’s investigation. That timeframe strongly suggests that the Department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the July 8 and 9 articles, but instead to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”
Trump GOES AFTER phone records of journalists and their relatives as press crackdown ESCALATES
Lawyers for the New York Times, via The Associated Press
The Times also questioned the accuracy of recent testimony provided by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, where the grand jury subpoenas were issued. During 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 newspaper’s motion argues that the issuance of additional subpoenas—some occurring on the same day as the grand jury ones, the following day, and on July 16, after the Times had already moved to quash—contradicts these claims.
Department of Justice Stance on National Security
The Department of Justice maintains that its actions are lawful and necessary to protect national security. In response to inquiries about the subpoenas, the department stated: Any subpoena issued by the Department of Justice is done so in full compliance with federal law and internal Department policy. A spokesperson previously told The Hill that while the agency recognizes the natural tension with the press, it is not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s OK to leak classified information impacting national security.
Photo: Apnews
The government has emphasized that reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are. The investigation follows reporting by the Times, which cited anonymous sources, that the new jet—a gift from Qatar that the administration spent $400 million to retrofit—lacked some advanced security features found on the older model, such as antimissile capabilities. The aircraft recently entered service, though Trump used an older model to return from a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has frozen the enforcement of the phone records subpoenas while the court considers the newspaper’s motion to quash. Arguments regarding the grand jury subpoenas are scheduled to be heard this Thursday.
