The New York Times building in Manhattan, New York City, on 16 September 2025. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters View image in fullscreen The New York Times building in Manhattan, New York City, on 16 September 2025. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters New York Times Trump’s DoJ drops effort to subpoena New York Times over Qatari jet story Journalists had reported on security concerns about US president flying on $400m Air Force One plane from Qatar
Prefer the Guardian on Google Donald Trump’s justice department has abandoned, for now, efforts to subpoena New York Times reporters over their coverage of security risks involving the president’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One replacement.
Sean Buckley, a top-ranking official in the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, announced the decision on Thursday afternoon about an hour into a proceeding where he was repeatedly grilled on the appropriateness of the subpoenas. Buckley was in court because the New York Times filed paperwork to fight these subpoenas.
Shortly after the proceeding began, Judge Arun Subramanian asked Buckley whether the subpoenas met the strict criteria for mandating testimony from reporters. Such subpoenas, Subramanian said, would not be considered appropriate unless authorities could not get information from any other source.
“Doesn’t the law … indicate that subpoenas are the last step, not the first step?” Subramanian asked, adding at one point, “Why don’t you tell me what the exception is that you’re relying on?”
Subramanian added: “I’m just trying to make sure I’m not missing anything.” Buckley replied that the exception was triggered when the attorney general said that subpoenas could be sought right away.
“It specifically says that before you seek a subpoena you need to make all reasonable attempts to seek information” elsewhere, Subramanian said at another point. “It’s just a matter of basic compliance with the law.”
The justice department had issued grand jury subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after they reported that the $400m plane lacked anti-missile and other security measures. Older Air Force One models have these capabilities.
While this unorthodox gift has long raised eyebrows among accountability and security experts, concerns came to a head earlier this month, when Trump traveled on the new Air Force One to Turkey for a Nato summit.
But Trump rode the older Air Force One to leave Turkey, which shares a border with Iran. The trip came as a US-Iran ceasefire crumpled. The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that Trump flew on the older Air Force One at the Secret Service’s request.
Trump told reporters that he didn’t opt out of flying on the new plane over safety concerns, asserting that he was always at risk from Iran. “I have a threat all the time,” Trump said. “I’m No 1 on their list.”
The Times also reported that before publishing a story on airplane security concerns, a high-ranking FBI official asked them to withhold the article for national security reasons. This official, the Times said, refused to provide details.
The journalists went forward with their report and on 10 July were subpoenaed for grand jury testimony.
“The subpoenas represent a brazen effort to intimidate the press into abandoning its critical, constitutionally protected role in securing and fostering our Republican system of self government,” Times attorneys said in court papers filed on 15 July. “Less than 24 hours after the Times published the second of…