DOJ Sought Phone Records of Reporter's Relatives

The Trump administration subpoenaed phone records belonging to relatives of New York Times journalists earlier this month as part of an effort to identify the reporters’ confidential sources, according to a letter the Times filed with a federal judge that was unsealed Monday.

The phone-record subpoenas were issued starting July 10 — the same day FBI agents personally served grand jury subpoenas on three Times reporters at their homes. Those reporters — Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton and Eric Schmitt — had contributed to articles published July 8 and 9 detailing security concerns about a jet gifted by the Qatari government that was being used as Air Force One. The government also attempted but ultimately did not serve subpoenas on two other Times reporters, Tyler Pager and Adam Goldman.

The records sought included phone numbers used by the mother of one journalist — a mental-health professional with confidential client relationships — as well as numbers belonging to two journalists’ spouses, one of whom serves as general counsel of a major law firm. Some of the subpoenas reached back to Jan. 1 and were issued without advance notice to the Times, the letter said.

Times lawyers filed the letter Saturday as part of an amended motion to quash the grand jury subpoenas on the reporters and the separate subpoenas to their phone providers. They called the requests “an abuse of the grand jury process” and “continued bad-faith attacks on the journalists” that violated Justice Department regulations.

“Any subpoena issued by the Department of Justice is done so in full compliance with federal law and internal Department policy,” a Justice Department spokesperson said Monday.

The Times argued the broad timeframe of the phone records “strongly suggests” the investigation was not focused on the recent articles but instead aimed at uncovering the journalists’ source relationships more broadly.

The Justice Department has previously said it is investigating national-security leaks rather than targeting journalists, and that it values the role of the press. At least one of the phone-record subpoenas included a nondisclosure order and was signed by a different judge. The government informed the Times of the phone-record subpoenas on the night of July 17.

The moves come amid the Trump administration’s expressed animosity toward many media outlets and intensified efforts to stem leaks from federal officials.

In other recent cases, The Wall Street Journal and its reporters received grand jury subpoenas in March related to a story about Pentagon concerns over a potential extended military campaign against Iran; those subpoenas were later withdrawn. The Washington Post reported last month that one of its journalists was subpoenaed over sensitive national-security reporting, but that subpoena was also withdrawn.