Trump takes New York Times fight up a notch with DOJ subpoenas

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President Trump is opening a new chapter in his years-long feud against The New York Times with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent move to subpoena journalists at the outlet over its reporting on security concerns surrounding the Qatari-gifted jet for Air Force One.

The subpoenas, issued to four Times journalists over the weekend, “seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday,” the Times said, noting several of the documents were delivered to journalists at their homes.

It is not the first time a presidential administration has subpoenaed journalists in a bid to identify and potentially punish confidential government sources, but experts say it’s highly unusual — and unlawful — to start a probe that way.

The dramatic escalation in Trump’s feud with America’s most iconic newspaper sparked sharp pushback from press freedom advocates and critics of the administration.

“By starting the investigation this way, this turns precedent on its head,” said George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, noting the Times reporters were subpoenaed at the beginning of the investigation rather than the end.

“The law is clear,” Freeman added. “Reporters should be the last place you go in an investigation, especially if you’re trying to find their confidential sources, not the first place.”

The move, media advocates warn, is designed to have a chilling impact on both independent media and people with access to sensitive information, which could lead to a less transparent government even after Trump leaves office.

A Justice Department spokesperson noted in a statement to The Hill that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”

The spokesperson went on to note that the DOJ values the role of the press, but the department is entrusted with making sure individuals who are given access to “our nation’s secrets do what they’re supposed to do with that information.”

“We recognize there may always be natural tension there, but we are not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s OK to leak classified information impacting national security,” the spokesperson said.

To be certain, presidents using the power of the federal government to crack down on unflattering press coverage is nothing new.

The Justice Department under former Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, and Nixon subpoenaed journalists. Trump’s DOJ has also subpoenaed reporters from other outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post in connection with alleged national security leaks.

But many see the latest salvo against the Times as belonging in a category of its own, based both on its timing and the recent history between the administration and the outlet.

“Plenty of outlets report critically about Trump,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told The Hill on Tuesday. “But the Times has unique reach and prestige among audiences that matter to him. That being said, if it had been any other outlet, it’s hard to imagine he would have behaved any differently.”

Trump has long feuded with mainstream media outlets but has taken particular issue with Times coverage of his administration. The president has characterized the newspaper as “failing” and “fake” and called out reporters by name in social media posts criticizing its coverage.

Trump sued the Times for defamation late last year over its reporting on his reelection campaign, a suit the outlet has vowed to fight in court and has argued is without merit.

The subpoenas come as the administration has sought to ratchet up pressure on most news outlets during Trump’s second term.

This week, the Pentagon announced the creation of a task force to identify and prosecute leakers. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair has threatened to scrutinize the broadcast licenses of networks that air programming critical of the president or his allies.

The subpoenas sent to Times reporters, observers say, fit this pattern.

In a statement responding to the subpoenas, top New York Times lawyer David McCraw said federal law enforcement showing up on reporters’ doorsteps “should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects.”

Media advocacy organizations echoed the Times’s condemnation, warning the administration’s move crosses what it says is a dangerous line and violates First Amendment protections.

“Every American should understand what is at stake,” the National Press Club said in a statement hours after the documents were issued. “When federal agents arrive at the homes of journalists with subpoenas, it is not ordinary law enforcement.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association, which has had a tense relationship with the West Wing during Trump’s second term, also condemned the subpoenas, saying the journalists in question “were targeted for doing their jobs to uphold the public’s right to know how its government operates.”

The Times reporters targeted in the DOJ’s probe include Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt. Barnes is listed as a plaintiff on a separate Times suit seeking to challenge the administration’s press policies at the Pentagon.

The group of journalists reported last week that Trump was forced to leave the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, in the old Air Force One early because of security precautions, despite arriving at the gathering on the new model from Qatar.

The change in planes, coupled with Trump acknowledging during the overseas trip that he was a top target of the regime in Iran, kicked off speculation about potential threats against the president given strikes between the two countries earlier in the week.

“This is a clear matter of public interest,” Freeman said, “given the ethical questions about accepting a gift of a $400 million jet from a foreign country and then finding that it really wasn’t fit for flying after taxpayer money was used to retrofit it”

“What could be more of the job of a journalist than to dig and get to the bottom of both the ethics and financial situation that made this plane apparently not flyable?” he said.

The subpoenas could be the first step in forcing Times journalists to reveal the identity of confidential sources, a result Trump has long publicly mused about and one that courts have been wary to force.

“Donald Trump has a problem with journalism, not journalists,” Stern said. “He loves the media … he’s a product of the media, but he knows that the lifeblood of investigative journalism is source confidentiality.”

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