The Trump Administration experienced some embarrassment after Secret Service agents advised the president that he should return from a NATO conference in Turkey in July of 2026 not on the newly refurbished Boeing 747-8 Air Force One that the Qatari government had gifted him but on one of the older Air Force One planes.
This advice, which Donald Trump took, led to considerable speculation. Trump somewhat unconvincingly explained the change as a way of allowing troops in Europe to see the new plane. However, relying upon information that they were provided by government officials who had spoken on the condition of anonymity, reporters from The New York Times revealed on July 8 that the action occurred because of concerns that the newly refurbished plane did not have the same defensive capabilities as the older models and was therefore more vulnerable to attack.
DOJ subpoenas journalists to reveal sources
After meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel and others, Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan who has been nominated to serve as the new director of national intelligence, on July 10 issued subpoenas on behalf of the Department of Justice. They were delivered to the residences of Times reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt and ordered them to reveal their sources to a grand jury meeting in Manhattan the next week.
The Times brought a suit questioning whether the government had followed proper procedures, and the Justice Department withdrew the subpoenas on July 23, after Judge Arun Subramanian of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, told the Department it it could either withdraw the subpoenas or he would quash them.
A hearing before the judge revealed that the subpoenas had improperly included relatives of some of the reporters and that the subpoenas had been secured without indicating that they involved the records of reporters. The judge indicated that issuing subpoenas to reporters "are not the first thing you do—they are the last thing you do."
In the interim, President Trump had indicated that the plane that he got from Qatar will be undergoing additional security upgrades.
Reactions to the subpoenas
David McCraw, who is a lawyer for the Times, said that “The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstop of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it represents.”
Bruce D. Bron, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that this was a “break from longstanding Justice Department practice to protect the public interest and press independence by requiring prosecutors to only seek information from reporters as a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted.”
By contrast the DOJ responded that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.” It further said that the department was “not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s okay to leak classified information impacting national security.”
Critics of the subpoenas, including Democratic U.S. senators, believed it represented part of a large pattern of government criticism and harassment of the press.
Lack of federal shield law
The incident highlights the fact that, although the Justice Department has often limited subpoenas of reporters to a few narrow exceptions, there is no federal shield law requiring that they do so. Reporters argued that the revelation of confidential sources has a chilling effect on their willingness to provide it.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.