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The Trump administration sought phone records tied to relatives of New York Times reporters earlier this month in its effort to identify the journalists’ sources, according to a letter the Times submitted to a federal judge that was unsealed Monday.
The subpoenas for phone records were served beginning July 10, the same day three Times reporters received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. Those reporters had worked on stories in the days prior about security concerns involving a jet gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government that was being used as Air Force One.
The Times’s lawyers filed the letter Saturday, amending a motion to quash the reporter subpoenas. The news organization also asked Judge Arun Subramanian to quash the subpoenas of the phone providers.
The government sought phone records for numbers it believed to be associated with the journalists, according to the letter. Those included the number used by a mother of one of the journalists, who is a mental-health professional with confidential client relationships, the letter said. Other numbers were used by two journalists’ spouses, one of whom is the general counsel of a major law firm.
The Times lawyers said the requests for phone records “demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad-faith attacks on the journalists” and violate Justice Department regulations.
“Any subpoena issued by the Department of Justice is done so in full compliance with federal law and internal Department policy,” a Justice Department spokesperson said Monday.
The Trump administration has expressed animosity toward many media outlets and in recent months intensified its efforts to stop leaks from federal officials.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents served subpoenas to journalists Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton and Eric Schmitt in their homes on July 10, demanding they appear before a grand jury in the Southern District of New York and disclose confidential sources. The administration also attempted to serve subpoenas to Tyler Pager and Adam Goldman but didn’t ultimately do so.
The government sought some phone records dating back to Jan. 1, according to the Times’s letter, and didn’t provide the Times with advance notice before seeking the records. The Times said that was a violation of the Justice Department’s policy.
“That timeframe strongly suggests that the Department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the July 8 and 9 articles, but instead to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly,” the Times lawyers wrote.
The Justice Department previously said it isn’t targeting the journalists, but rather is investigating national-security leaks. It also said it values “the important role that the press plays in this country.”
At least one of the phone-record subpoenas, filed after the Times’s lawyers submitted the motion to quash the reporter subpoenas, included a nondisclosure order signed by a different judge than the one assigned to review the Times’s motion, according to the letter.
The government disclosed the phone-record subpoenas to Times lawyers the night of July 17, the letter said.
The Trump administration has pursued other members of the media as well. The Wall Street Journal and its reporters received grand jury subpoenas dated March 4 that sought information related to a February article about the Pentagon raising concerns to Trump about the risks of an extended military campaign against Iran. A Dow Jones spokesperson said the subpoenas were later withdrawn.
The Washington Post reported last month that one of its journalists was subpoenaed related to “sensitive reporting about a national security matter.” The subpoena was later withdrawn, the Post reported.
A hearing on the Times’s motion to quash its subpoenas is scheduled for Thursday.
Write to Alexandra Bruell at [email protected]
