When the nation of Qatar bribery-gifted Donald Trump with
a $400 million new Air Force One plane, it apparently did not include necessary safety features to protect the president while in flight. That was a detail that Trump chose to overlook until the US Secret Service urged him to revert back to using the older, safer Air Force One plane after a NATO meeting in Turkey.
When journalists with
The New York Times reported on this fact,
Trump's ego couldn't take it. So his Department of Justice (DOJ)
issued subpoenas for not only 4 reporters with the Times, but also for 3 of their family members; one person's mother and two people's spouses.
This is a terrifying attack on Freedom of the Press. Sign the petition to demand that Congress pass a law further safeguarding journalists' families! They must make it clear that Administrations cannot target journalists' parents and spouses simply because they dislike a reporter's story.In delivering the subpoenas over this legitimate news coverage, Trump's administration sent
armed federal agents to the private homes of these reporters. The subpoenas themselves also sought a shocking range of information - even though the events in Turkey didn't occur until July 2026, Trump's team wanted a request of all phone records dating back to
January 1, 2026, a full six months earlier.
For the subpoenas against family members, one was for a parent who is
a mental health professional who maintains confidential records for her clients, and another was for a spouse who
works as a lawyer. To demand their phone records is a whole other level of sinister.
As David McCraw, an attorney for
the Times, said: "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." Seth Stern with the Freedom of the Press Foundation
summarized the situation clearly:
"The administration's embarrassment" over the journalists reporting on his bribery-plane-gift's security concerns "does not supersede the need for a free and independent press."Luckily, the DOJ
has since withdrawn its subpoenas, but only because the Judge overseeing the case pointed out that the DOJ's process for
issuing the subpoenas violated the law. Subpoenas like this, targeting reporters, are only allowed to occur as a "last step," after a long list of other steps are followed first. But that doesn't change the DOJ's intent. In fact, after the subpoena withdrawal, the DOJ criticized the Judge involved and stated:
"Make no mistake, this investigation remains ongoing" against the reporters and their news coverage.
The Constitution protects the Freedom of the Press, and a Judge already made it clear that the DOJ's subpoenas violated the law. But what about protections for other people in journalists' lives? We must make it clear that reporters - and the people they love - are safe from intimidation and political retribution! Sign the petition.