The Trump administration pursued phone records of multiple New York Times journalists and several of their family members, including one reporter’s mother and spouses of two journalists, according to a legal motion unsealed Monday. The effort represents an unusually expansive attempt to compel the identification of confidential news sources who wrote about a Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet that underwent a $400 million retrofit and upgrade before entering service.
The phone records subpoenas supplement grand jury subpoenas delivered to three Times reporters on July 10, which sought to compel testimony regarding the identity of sources. The Times filed motions to challenge both sets of subpoenas. A federal judge has scheduled arguments for Thursday on the grand jury subpoenas and has temporarily halted enforcement of the phone records subpoenas pending a ruling on the newspaper’s motion to quash them.
The Times’ legal team argued the government acted in bad faith by not providing advance notice to the journalists and by demanding information without conducting thorough investigation first. The newspaper noted that some phone records subpoenas began from January 1, well before the articles in question were published on July 8 and 9, suggesting the investigation aimed broadly at source relationships rather than the specific reporting. The phone records requests also raised concerns because one subpoena targeted a mother who is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships, and another targeted a spouse who serves as general counsel of a law firm.
The Justice Department responded that it had complied with departmental regulations and taken investigative steps before issuing subpoenas. Officials stated they were authorized to delay disclosure but chose to alert the journalists’ lawyers to allow them to challenge the requests. The department added that any phone numbers unrelated to the journalists themselves would not be pursued if determined to be unassociated with the reporters.
The escalation reflects heightened tensions between the Trump administration and news organizations. The effort follows an FBI search earlier in the year of a Washington Post reporter’s home and device seizure. Press advocates have characterized the subpoenas as intimidation tactics aimed at suppressing reporting on government activities.