Justice Department subpoenaed four New York Times reporters over their Air Force One security reporting

On July 11, 2026, federal agents delivered grand-jury subpoenas to four New York Times reporters — Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt — directing them to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law. The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and were served days after the Times published reporting on security concerns surrounding the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8 the administration is outfitting for use as Air Force One, including that the Secret Service had urged the president to use an older aircraft during a NATO summit and that the new plane lacked certain defensive countermeasures.

David McCraw, senior vice president and deputy general counsel for the Times, called the move a "brazen act," saying "the appearance of Federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience." The subpoenas direct the reporters toward compelled grand-jury testimony tied to a leak investigation into how the newsgathering was obtained, applying federal criminal process to journalists over reporting the government sought to keep from the public.

Updates

2026-07-15 — New York Times moved to quash the subpoenas [4]

On July 15, 2026, The New York Times filed a motion under seal in the Southern District of New York to quash the grand-jury subpoenas served on its reporters, setting up a court fight over press freedom. Deputy general counsel David McCraw said the subpoenas were "brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage" and violated the constitutional rights of the paper and its journalists.

2026-07-15 — FBI escalated the leak probe and sought White House officials' phones [5]

As the same investigation intensified, chief of staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel helped orchestrate a leak probe on White House grounds in which some officials were asked to turn over their phones to investigators, according to CNN. The inquiry sought to identify who disclosed the security deficiencies of the Qatari-gifted aircraft.

2026-07-20 — DOJ sought phone records of journalists and relatives; court froze subpoenas [6, 7]

The Justice Department had separately served third-party telecommunications providers with subpoenas seeking call and messaging records of New York Times journalists and, more expansively, records of their relatives — including a reporter's mother and two journalists' spouses — according to a court motion filed by the Times and unsealed on July 20, 2026. The subpoenas covered a time period starting January 1, 2026, months before the July 8–9 articles, which Times lawyers said "strongly suggests" the investigation was broadly seeking journalists' source relationships rather than targeting specific leaks. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian froze enforcement of the phone records subpoenas pending a ruling on the Times's motion to quash them. The Justice Department said it had complied with its own regulations and that any subpoenas for phone numbers not associated with the journalists would be withdrawn upon confirmation.

2026-07-21 — DOJ paused all grand-jury subpoenas, conceding major errors [8, 9]

The Justice Department paused all grand-jury subpoenas served on the four New York Times reporters, acknowledging "major screwups" in how the subpoenas were issued. The pause followed the Times's motion to quash and substantial public and bipartisan pushback. The DOJ put the subpoenas on hold for two weeks while reviewing the legal errors its own filings had revealed.

2026-07-23 — DOJ fully withdrew three subpoenas after federal judge called the work sloppy [10, 11]

The Justice Department fully withdrew the grand-jury subpoenas against reporters Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, and Tyler Pager, admitting legal errors before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who had characterized the DOJ's legal work as "sloppy." The withdrawal ended the subpoena threat for three of the four reporters and represented a full capitulation under judicial and public pressure.

2026-07-24 — DOJ withdrew all remaining subpoenas at court hearing; judge threatened sanctions over slipshod legal work [12, 13, 14]

At a July 24, 2026, court hearing before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan, the Justice Department fully withdrew all grand-jury subpoenas and phone-record demands against the four New York Times reporters, completing the reversal of the enforcement campaign against the paper's Air Force One coverage. Subramanian pressed federal prosecutors on why subpoenas were issued before less-invasive investigative steps, called the legal work "slipshod," and threatened sanctions for misleading the court in signed filings. Prosecutor Sean Buckley acknowledged that the government had mistakenly obtained phone records linked to reporters' relatives — including a spouse and a reporter's mother — through a database error. In a brief order following the hearing, Subramanian declared all challenged subpoenas "null and void." The Justice Department subsequently blamed the judge for the outcome, claiming he had "threatened our attorneys with sanctions" while blocking the government "from presenting the meticulous process of this investigation." Times deputy general counsel David McCraw called the proceeding "an important affirmation of our country's commitment to a free press" and said the subpoenas "should never have been issued in the first place."