U.S. Withdraws NYT Subpoenas After Judge Exposes Errors in July 14 Secrecy Filing
Updated
Updated · Lawfare blog · Jul 25
U.S. Withdraws NYT Subpoenas After Judge Exposes Errors in July 14 Secrecy Filing
3 articles · Updated · Lawfare blog · Jul 25
Summary
At a July 23 hearing, the government reversed course and withdrew subpoenas seeking New York Times reporters’ testimony and phone records after Judge Arun Subramanian said the court would otherwise quash them.
Buckley, the prosecutor overseeing the leak probe, conceded the government could not meet the Gonzales reporter-privilege test because it had not exhausted alternative investigative steps before subpoenaing journalists.
Subramanian also pressed prosecutors over a July 14 application that falsely said the investigation was not public and omitted that the records belonged to a journalist; the government called the mistakes inadvertent and promised they would not recur.
The subpoenas stemmed from July 8-9 Times reports that Trump switched from a retrofitted Qatari jet to the older Air Force One after Secret Service security concerns.
The court kept jurisdiction over any future subpoenas involving the reporters, and the Times said the episode had already chilled reporting and implicated core First Amendment interests.