Incident details
- Date of incident
- February 2026
- Location
- Newport News, Virginia
- Legal orders
-
-
subpoena
for
testimony about confidential source
- Feb. 1, 2026: Pending
- Unknown date: Objected to
-
subpoena
for
communications or work product
- Feb. 1, 2026: Pending
- Unknown date: Objected to
-
subpoena
for
testimony about confidential source
- Legal order target
- Journalist
- Legal order venue
- Federal
Subpoena/Legal Order
U.S. Navy SEALs take part in an amphibious assault demonstration in California in 2025. Freelance reporter Matthew Cole was subpoenaed in February 2026 for grand jury testimony and notes connected to his reporting on a failed 2019 SEAL team mission.
Freelance reporter Matthew Cole was subpoenaed in February 2026 by Justice Department officials in Newport News, Virginia, in an effort to force him to reveal his sources for a New York Times article about a failed top secret mission in North Korea.
Cole, alongside Times staff reporter Dave Philipps, revealed in September 2025 details of a 2019 Navy SEAL Team 6 operation to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the North Korean coastline, which went awry when several unarmed North Koreans stumbled upon the mission and were killed.
The Times first disclosed the subpoena on Aug. 1, reporting that FBI agents had attempted to serve the grand jury subpoena — which demanded both testimony and two years’ worth of notes — to Cole at his home in New York. Unable to do so, the subpoena was ultimately delivered to his attorney.
The newspaper is providing Cole’s legal defense, he wrote in a Substack post.
“Independent journalists have few resources to fight the government, but I’ve been grateful to have had the immediate and unwavering support of the New York Times and my legal team,” Cole wrote. “It’s something to see when people and institutions stand up and fight for a free press.”
In the final week of July, Cole added, his attorneys filed a motion asking the court to unseal the proceedings to enable public awareness.
“I’m limited in what I can say about this for now, but I will not stop reporting on what the powerful want to keep secret from the public,” he wrote.
Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement to the newspaper that the subpoena was “another brazen and illegal attack from the administration designed to deny the public information of vital importance.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation, but told the Times that it would use all available legal tools to “uncover those who unlawfully disclose national defense information.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
