NY Times reporters’ phone, text records sought by DOJ in secret subpoenas

Phone records for multiple New York Times reporters were targeted in secretive subpoenas issued by the Department of Justice starting on July 10, 2026, as part of a rushed investigation to identify the sources leaking information to the newspaper.

The journalists had reported on July 8 and July 9 that, after taking his new Qatari-donated Air Force One on its maiden voyage to Turkey for a NATO meeting, Trump reverted to the former plane at the urging of the Secret Service because of safety concerns, including that it lacked the same defensive countermeasures.

On July 10, FBI Director Kash Patel was tapped to oversee a leak investigation into the Times’ reporting and, in a major departure from precedent, he ran the inquiry from the White House, establishing a “war room” with Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles.

That evening, FBI agents served grand jury testimony subpoenas to reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton and Eric Schmitt at their homes. According to a letter written by an attorney for the Times, the Justice Department also attempted but failed to serve similar subpoenas to journalists Adam Goldman and Tyler Pager.

A week later, the DOJ revealed that it had also issued multiple subpoenas to phone service providers seeking call and text records for accounts believed to be associated with the five journalists. At least three of the numbers belonged to family members of the journalists, the newspaper reported.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, attorneys for the Times wrote that while the department served “some” of the subpoenas July 10, additional requests were sent on July 14 and July 16.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was unable to confirm the precise number of subpoenas issued or which journalists were targeted in each. At least two of the subpoenas also sought records dating back to Jan. 1, but it was not immediately clear which.

According to the DOJ, the last two subpoenas were issued after it was determined that the provider that had been served initially did not host the underlying phone number. The department also revealed that the July 16 subpoena was issued to Google along with a nondisclosure order issued by a different judge and under the false impression that the investigation was not public.

Attorneys for the Times asked the court July 18 to consider the third-party subpoenas alongside the grand jury requests in their motion to quash, arguing that they only further demonstrated the irregularity of the department’s requests.

“These actions demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad-faith attacks on the Journalists, violations of the Department’s own internal regulations, and disregard for the law in this Circuit intended to protect critical First Amendment interests,” wrote attorney David O’Neil. “They raise pressing questions about the conduct of this purported national security investigation and confirm the absence of any regularity in the department’s use of the grand jury in this case.”

The department, in its response, argued that the investigation is ongoing, and asked that the court place a two-week hold on all of the subpoenas in order for it to pursue “particular investigative steps.”

The DOJ also said that it has asked the service providers to postpone turning over records for the time being.

A hearing on the Times’ motion to quash the subpoenas — understood to concern all of them — is scheduled for July 23.