New York, July 12 (dpa/GNA) – Four New York Times journalists have received subpoenas from the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, after they reported on possible security concerns linked to President Donald Trump’s new official aircraft.
The newspaper said on Saturday that its reporters are due to testify before a grand jury next week. The summonses cite only an unspecified alleged violation of federal criminal law as the reason.
According to the newspaper, the reporters received the subpoenas on Friday, delivered in some cases by federal officials to their homes in what was seen as an attempt to intimidate independent media. “The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.
Citing anonymous sources, the journalists reported this week that Trump flew from the NATO summit in Turkey to the British air base at Mildenhall on the old Air Force One on the advice of the Secret Service. There he transferred to the new aircraft, which was a gift from Qatar.
Trump had fuelled speculation in Ankara about the security of the new jumbo jet. When asked why he was not departing on the gifted aircraft, he replied that he was “number one on Iran’s hit list.”
In a separate report by the newspaper, it wrote that the new jet did not yet have all the security and defence systems of the old presidential aircraft.
However, the government and Trump denied that security concerns were the reason for the change of aircraft. Trump stated on several occasions that the stopover served to show the new aircraft to military personnel. The Attorney’s Office could not initially be reached for confirmation of the subpoenas.
The US Department of Justice has also been contacted for comment. Since the start of his second term, Trump has been cracking down on US media outlets.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice attempted to compel journalists from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post to give evidence in investigations into whistleblowing.
These subpoenas were later withdrawn, following legal challenges by the media organizations.
GNA