(AFP) – The US Justice Department on Thursday withdrew subpoenas issued to New York Times reporters over a story they wrote about security concerns with a plane donated to President Donald Trump by Qatar. The Times said federal prosecutors agreed at a court hearing in New York before District Judge Arun Subramanian to “unilaterally withdraw the subpoenas at this time.”
The newspaper had challenged the government requests for phone records of reporters and grand jury testimony as an attempt to “intimidate” the press and filed a motion to have them quashed. Lawyers for the Times said “the Government’s actions violate the most basic First Amendment protections for newsgathering activity.” “They represent the latest salvo in an escalating series of attacks on journalists to intimidate them from engaging in reporting that the Trump Administration openly detests,” they said.
The subpoenas were issued after a Times report that the Qatari-gifted Air Force One lacked certain security countermeasures, including anti-missile defenses. Qatar’s royal family donated the luxury airliner last year after Trump complained about the state of the two aging jets that have served as the official US presidential planes since 1990. Trump took his first flight on the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 plane on July 1, but questions swirled after he took an older jet home from a NATO meeting in Ankara on July 10. Turkey borders Iran, and hostilities between Washington and Tehran had flared up again at the time.
Trump denied any security concerns and said he was sending the new plane to a British airbase so it could be toured by US troops. He later said the Qatari-gifted Air Force One needed to be sent off for a month to be “maxed out.” He did not give details about how the plane would be “maxed out.” Critics have raised a host of ethical, constitutional, and security concerns about the gifting of an aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars by a foreign power like Qatar. The plane features a new Trump-designed livery in red, white, and navy blue, in a change from the previous white and light blue. Two brand-new Boeing Air Force Ones are due to be delivered later this decade after a series of delays and cost overruns.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the withdrawal of the subpoenas. “Today’s outcome is a victory for The New York Times and for every journalist who relies on confidential sources to report in the public interest,” RSF said. “The court has reaffirmed that the government cannot use its legal powers to intimidate reporters or erode the independence of the press.”
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