Overview
- Federal prosecutors on Friday issued grand‑jury subpoenas that order four New York Times journalists to testify in Manhattan next week about an alleged federal crime.
- The reporters named include Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, and the Times said federal agents delivered some subpoenas to journalists’ homes.
- The subpoenas follow Times stories that reported the newly retrofitted, Qatari‑donated Boeing 747‑8 lacked some advanced defensive features and that the Secret Service urged a temporary swap to the older Air Force One during a NATO trip.
- The New York Times said it will fight the subpoenas, press‑freedom groups and some Democrats called for their withdrawal, and the Justice Department and White House said reporters are not the targets while defending leak investigations.
- The action updates a pattern of aggressive leak probes this year — including earlier subpoenas that were later withdrawn — and comes as the U.S. attorney who issued the subpoenas, Jay Clayton, has been nominated to lead the intelligence community.