The Trump administration subpoenaed several New York Times journalists after the newspaper reported that the president swapped the White House’s newly refurbished $400 million jet gifted by the Qataris while on a trip to Turkey over a “security precaution.”
The subpoenas, issued Friday, order the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday.
The paper blasted the move as anti-free press and said it should “shock the conscience.”
It comes days after publication of the report, which questioned whether the new plane, a Boeing 747-8 featuring expansive room and luxury finishings, had been “retrofitted with sufficient security measures” during the rush to get it in the air.
It cited lawmakers’ concerns about whether the job allowed for adding “an advanced missile defense system and other modifications.”
The report also credited the Secret Service with pushing for the swap.
The subpoenas, issued by US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton, called on journalists to testify “in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law,” according to the Times.
“It could be one of the most important tests of the First Amendment since the Pentagon Papers cases,” said attorney Norm Eisen, executive director of the Democracy Defenders Fund. “You have the special First Amendment status, expressly constitutionally protected, of freedom of the press running up against one of the strongest governmental interests in national security.”
He called the subpoenas “menacing.”
“If the government were to prevail here, no reporter in America would be safe in having a source on the functioning of the federal government,” he added.
In an unusual move, Trump flew to the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey aboard the new aircraft for its first international trip as Air Force One, then announced he was flying home on an older model to allow US troops in Europe to view the new one.
He flew back on one of the older modified Boeing 747s, then joined the new one at Mildenhall Royal Air Force base in the UK for the final leg of his trip home.
The administration, without explicitly denying security reports, said it relied on “distraction and misdirection” to contend with threats.
At the same summit, Trump said he was No. 1 on Iran’s ‘kill list.”
It is one of several incidents where the administration has sought to force reporters to talk about reporting on unwanted leaks.
In January, the FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of a leak probe into a government contractor.
The Justice Department this year subpoenaed Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporters as part of another probe, only to later withdraw them in June after the news organizations fought the move.
