The Trump administration has gone after the phone records of journalists’ relatives in its investigation of reporting on the president’s gifted Qatari-gifted Air Force One plane, court documents show.
Subpoenas were issued to multiple journalists at The New York Times last week after the newspaper reported on security concerns about Donald Trump’s new jet in what the newspaper characterized as an “extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt to unearth confidential sources.”
Attorneys for the newspaper filed a motion to quash the subpoenas over the weekend after the administration sought the records of one reporter’s mother and two journalists’ spouses in relation to the probe, the lawyers said.
“The identifiers for which the Government seeks information include phone numbers used by one Journalist’s mother and two Journalists’ spouses,” they wrote. “The mother is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships. One of the two spouses is the general counsel of a major 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 lawyers added in the motion.
Julian Barnes, Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton are among the Times reporters who received subpoenas.
The Independent has contacted the Justice Department for comment.
Freedom of the Press Foundation chief of advocacy Seth Stern said that targeting reporters’ relatives has “nothing to do with national security and everything to do with chilling journalism.”
“Even the Mafia says families are off limits. It’s gross that the administration — in its never-ending effort to harass and intimidate reporters who reveal its incompetence — is going after the communications of journalists’ relatives,” Stern said in a statement.
“The administration’s own guidelines say pursuing journalists is a last resort. But instead, it’s looking for any excuse to snoop on reporters and their relatives.”
In a previous statement, the Justice Department justified the subpoenas by saying that “to be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”
The Times initially reported that the Qatari jet “lacks the same defensive countermeasures as the older model, including antimissile capabilities.”
Trump told reporters on Sunday that the gifted plane was being taken out of service so it could be “maxed out,” and appeared to confirm the newspaper’s reporting.
“It has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” he told a reporter who asked why the president was flying on a plane that lacked antimissile defense systems.
The new Air Force One, a $400 million Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, lacks “some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities,” the Times reported.
The jet, an expensive gift that has raised ethics and security concerns among Democrats, was retrofitted by the Pentagon earlier this year and officially unveiled by Trump last month.
Trump said last week he would be flying the older aircraft out of Turkey “for old times’s sake.” He later denied that security concerns factored into the decision.
Before the Times published the article, an FBI official contacted the outlet and asked that it be held, citing national security concerns. The official also asked the newspaper to reveal its sources for the article, which the outlet declined to do.
Brendan Rascius contributed reporting
