The Justice Department has subpoenaed four journalists at The New York Times after they reported President Trump’s new Air Force One lacked key security features, including advanced anti-missile capabilities. The Boeing aircraft had been donated to Trump by Qatar and then refurbished. Trump flew on the plane last week to the NATO summit in Turkey but then took the old Air Force One home due to security concerns. 

The Times reported subpoenas were issued to the reporters Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt. The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who was recently nominated by Trump to serve as director of national intelligence. Clayton’s confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday.

A lawyer for The New York Times said, “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”
The head of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, said, “The subpoenas are an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations, and have a chilling effect on the work of journalists across the country.”