New York Times asks judge to quash subpoenas demanding reporters disclose confidential sources

New York Times asks judge to quash subpoenas demanding reporters disclose confidential sources.

The New York Times on Wednesday asked a federal judge to quash Justice Department subpoenas to journalists who reported on security flaws in President Donald Trump's new Air Force One plane. David McCraw, the paper's top lawyer, called the subpoenas "abusive" and "improper" in a statement.

"As we set out in our motion, these subpoenas are brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage," McCraw said. "They violate the constitutional rights of The Times and its journalists. We are going to court to defend our journalists' rights to report freely on the administration and to provide the public with stories that matter."

The subpoenas were signed by Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and President Donald Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. The subpoenas require the reporters to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan.

The subpoenas became a topic during separate Capitol Hill hearings on Wednesday, as senators on the Intelligence Committee questioned Clayton about what Sen. Ron Wyden termed a "flagrant attack" on journalists. At Clayton's confirmation hearing, Wyden asked why he took the unusual step of signing off on subpoenas to journalists. Clayton said they were part of "an ongoing national security investigation." Clayton told Wyden that he followed "the process that we were required to follow."

During Blanche's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Peter Welch asked him if he supported the effort to subpoena the Times journalists. Blanche told Welch that the Justice Department saw the journalists as "material witnesses, just like reporters would be witnesses to a car crash." "The question we want to ask them is who provided them with classified national security information, which everybody in this body should want to protect -- I would hope," Blanche said.

In an email to the newsroom Saturday, Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn called the subpoenas a "retaliatory abuse of prosecutorial power." "This is a naked attempt to intimidate individual reporters and to prevent The Times and other independent news media from doing important reporting protected by the First Amendment," he said.

During the Trump administration, the Justice Department has taken a more aggressive stance toward journalists. Last year, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi made it easier for prosecutors to obtain search warrants and subpoenas for members of the media by scrapping Biden-era policies that required department officials to weigh alternative ways to obtain the information they sought.