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New York Times Sues Pentagon over Press Policy That “Violates the First Amendment”

HeadlineDec 04, 2025

The Pentagon’s inspector general is set to release a report today on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the widely available social media app Signal to discuss U.S. airstrikes in Yemen earlier this year. Two people familiar with the report’s findings told news outlets that Hegseth endangered U.S. troops in using Signal to discuss the strikes with several other senior Trump administration officials. The chat, which included Hegseth’s wife and brother, was revealed when The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to the Signal group. Defense Secretary Hegseth refused to cooperate with the inspector general, refusing to hand over his phone or sit for an interview.

This comes as The New York Times is suing the Pentagon over its new press policy that requires media outlets to pledge not to gather information unless defense officials formally authorize its release. Earlier this year, reporters at the Times, along with several other media outlets, gave up their press passes rather than comply with the Pentagon’s new policy. The Times argues in its lawsuit that the Pentagon’s policy “is exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment.”

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