FREE SPEECH CRACKDOWN

Trump Goons Launch Sinister Legal Attack on AF1 Reporters

The journalists have been required to appear before a federal Grand Jury.

Four journalists from The New York Times have been served subpoenas for their reporting on security issues with President Donald Trump’s new Air Force One.

The Times has slammed the move as “an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.” The paper wrote that federal agents delivered the subpoenas to the reporters’ homes on Friday night.

Those served were reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt, all of whom are now required to appear before a federal grand jury on Wednesday.

Times lawyer David McCraw called the move a “brazen act.” He said it “should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”

According to the Times, the subpoenas are vague, asking only that the journalists testify “in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law.”

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” McCraw said.

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Reached for comment, the White House referred the Daily Beast to the Department of Justice.

In a statement Saturday morning, a spokesman for the DOJ said reporters were not targets of the investigation.

“Every administration has addressed the crime of leaking national security information. To the extent that we have to investigate breaches of national security, that’s something that we will continue to do,” the statement said. “To be clear, reporters are not the targets; those leaking classified information are.”

The spokesperson continued, “We value and appreciate the important role that the press plays in this country, but DOJ also plays an important role to make sure that the people entrusted with our nation’s secrets do what they’re supposed to do with that information, which means not sharing classified information.”

SORE POINT

Trump ‘Embarrassed’ Over Last-Minute Air Force One Swap

Catherine Bouris

The spokesman said there is a “natural tension” between journalists and protecting classified information, but that the DOJ was “not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s OK to leak classified information impacting national security.”

The move follows reporting by the Times about a security threat related to the new Air Force One that Trump, 80, accepted as a gift from the Qatari government.

The Times reported on Wednesday that the president switched to the previous Air Force One at the Secret Service’s request during his trip to Turkey because of an unspecified threat. Trump has since hinted that Iran is plotting to assassinate him.

Prior to publication, the Times reports that it was contacted by a senior official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who asked that it hold the story as a matter of national security. They did not specify what the issue was.

Despite acknowledging there are threats to his life from Iran, Trump claims that the change of planes was so the new jet could be admired by American troops in the United Kingdom.

“To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft — Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,“ he wrote.

“For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!”

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