The Justice Department has agreed to withdraw all subpoenas issued to New York Times reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, and Eric Schmitt, as well as their family members, following a legal challenge by the newspaper. These subpoenas were part of a federal investigation into the leak of classified information concerning the Qatari-gifted Air Force One's missile defense capabilities.
The White House, under President Trump, had expressed outrage over the initial New York Times story published on July 8, prompting the Justice Department to pursue the sources of the leak. The subpoenas, served on the reporters' homes on July 10, compelled their testimony before a grand jury and sought phone records not only for the reporters themselves but also for spouses and a mother of the journalists. The New York Times characterized these actions as "extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox" and a "bad-faith effort to intimidate."
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had previously stated that reporters were not targets but rather "material witnesses" in the leak investigation. However, the Justice Department conceded to errors in its handling of the case, including seeking phone numbers that belonged to family members rather than the reporters themselves. The department paused the enforcement of the subpoenas for two weeks, implicitly acknowledging the need to conduct further investigation to obtain information elsewhere before compelling reporter testimony.
