US sought phone records of New York Times journalists and their relatives

The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources who had provided information for articles about the security capabilities of President Trump’s new Air Force One jet.

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The Justice Department told the Times late last week that it had issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking several journalists’ phone and text messaging records. That effort was in addition to the subpoenas issued July 10 that sought to compel reporters to testify before a federal grand jury.

The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a motion filed Saturday by lawyers for the Times, which is seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in New York City.

The White House referred inquiries to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Times declined to comment beyond the motion filed by its lawyers.

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The government began a leak investigation into the Times’ coverage days after the news outlet reported earlier this month that federal officials harbored significant concerns about the security capabilities of Trump’s new, Qatari-donated Air Force One jet.

All the subpoenas have been paused until Subramanian rules on the Times’ motion to quash. A hearing is scheduled on the matter for Thursday in New York City.

In its motion Saturday, the Times said that the Justice Department had violated its own guidelines for media subpoenas when it waited a week to notify the Times about the phone record requests, calling the delay “deeply concerning.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.