Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,
The New York Times on July 15 asked a court to toss out grand jury subpoenas of three of its reporters who published a story about the new Air Force One plane that Qatar gifted to President Donald Trump.
The paper published the story earlier this month alleging the new plane lacked some defensive features of the older Air Force One aircraft, which the White House denied. That led Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to issue subpoenas to find out where the reporters were getting their information.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, said the subpoenas were issued to find out who leaked information to the NY Times. Justice Department rules required him to authorize the subpoenas.
“We’re not targeting reporters,” Blanche told Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), later adding, “The question we want to ask them is who provided them with classified national security information.”
David McCraw, senior vice president and deputy general counsel of The NY Times, said the subpoenas were “brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage."
“We are going to court to defend our journalists’ rights to report freely on the administration and to
