The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it would withdraw subpoenas seeking phone records and grand jury testimony from New York Times journalists involved in reporting on the security capabilities of President Donald Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet. Sean Buckley, a senior official in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, stated during a U.S. District Court hearing that the government is prepared to unilaterally withdraw the subpoenas at this time.
This decision follows questioning from U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian regarding the handling of the subpoenas. The New York Times had requested the court to quash the subpoenas, arguing that they were an attempt to intimidate its reporters. Judge Subramanian noted that the withdrawal does not prevent the DOJ from issuing new subpoenas if proper procedures are followed.
The subpoenas were originally issued on July 11, stemming from an article published by the New York Times that speculated on President Trump’s departure from a NATO summit in Turkey aboard an older presidential aircraft instead of the new Qatari-gifted plane, which he had used to travel to the summit.