Trump Admin Seeks Phone Records Of NYT Journalists — And Their Relatives

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Trump administration is going after the phone records of several New York Times journalists — and even their relatives — in an attempt to root out the confidential sources who provided intel on security deficiencies with the Qatari-gifted Air Force One.

The Times reported earlier this month “that the new jet, which he flew to Turkey, lacks the same defensive countermeasures as the older model, including antimissile capabilities.” Just 24-hours after the report was published, the Justice Department hand-delivered subpoenas compelling the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury.

Times reporter Michael M. Grynbaum wrote Monday, “The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting had angered the president.”

Grynbaum added, “The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a motion filed on Saturday by lawyers for The Times, which is seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed on Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.”

The president seemed to confirm the Times’s reporting at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday, when he said the jet was being taken out of service for additional work.

After a reporter asked why Trump was flying on an aircraft that lacked antimissile defense systems usually employed to defend the president, he responded, “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.”

Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote in a separate piece Monday, “It was not clear what specific upgrades Mr. Trump was referring to, or whether the time frame he gave of a month until it is ready was realistic. Nonetheless, it appeared to be an admission from the president that the plane’s security measures are not as extensive as the models that have been designed to be built from the ground up to serve as Air Force One.”

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