The Justice Department subpoenaed the phone records of New York Times reporters, their mothers and their spouses to find the sources of an Air Force One story

What happened

On July 8 and 9, 2026, the New York Times reported that Trump had flown home from a NATO summit on the older Air Force One. The Secret Service had judged the Qatari-gifted jet, retrofitted at a cost of $400 million, to lack features including antimissile defenses.

On July 10, agents served grand-jury subpoenas on three Times reporters, issued by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton’s office. They demanded testimony about the reporters’ sources. Subpoenas to phone carriers dated July 10, 14 and 16 sought records of Times journalists and relatives, including one reporter’s mother and two spouses. Two reached back to January 1, 2026.

A Times motion unsealed July 20 disclosed the subpoenas, and Judge Arun Subramanian stayed enforcement. The paper said the department gave no notice and did no prior investigation, violating its own rules. The department said it had followed its regulations and that “reporters are not the targets.” At a July 23 hearing the judge said such subpoenas “are the last thing you do.” Prosecutors called the relatives’ subpoenas an “error” and withdrew all of them, which his order declared “null and void.”

Who benefited

The White House gained a criminal process aimed at the sources and reporters behind a story embarrassing to the president about a gift he had championed. For a time the Justice Department established that relatives’ records are within reach when the target is a journalist.

Who wanted something

Trump had publicly attacked the Air Force One story. His administration had already seized a Washington Post reporter’s devices earlier in 2026. The department’s leak-investigation policy had rescinded Biden-era protections for journalists.

Who lost out

The Times reporters and their families had their private communications sought without notice. Confidential sources inside the Secret Service and Air Force were exposed to the search. Every government employee weighing whether to speak to a reporter saw the risk. The 2022 Justice Department policy barring compulsory process against journalists in leak cases was set aside.

Why it matters

The government reached past the reporters to their mothers and spouses, and back to months before the story existed. It sought to learn who told the press that the president’s gift plane was unsafe. A judge stopped it within two weeks.

Sources U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. (via CourtListener) (primary)CourtListener (primary)PBS News / APCourthouse News Service