The federal government has withdrawn its subpoenas compelling New York Times reporters to testify about their anonymous sources in reporting that contradicted President Donald Trump’s claims about a Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.
The withdrawal came on Thursday at the end of a hearing in the Southern District of New York, during which Judge Arun Subramanian grilled federal prosecutors about “inadvertent errors” they admitted to making in filing for the subpoenas.
Earlier this month, the reporters received the subpoenas referencing “an alleged violation of federal criminal law” just two days after the Times published its reporting that government officials had security concerns about the Qatari-gifted plane.
Trump seethed about the reporting. The Justice Department opened a leak investigation within hours, taking aggressive steps to identify the officials who spoke with the Times.
The paper aggressively fought back against the subpoenas, calling them a “bad faith effort to harass and intimidate” the reporters. The government, meanwhile, claimed the subpoenas were part of a crucial “national security investigation.”
