Qatar’s gift to Trump under scrutiny... security leaks ignite an unprecedented confrontation

The U.S. Department of Justice has entered into a new confrontation with The New York Times after issuing subpoenas to several of its journalists over reports they published about the new presidential aircraft received by U.S. President Donald Trump as a gift from Qatar, which discussed its lack of some advanced defensive systems.

According to the reports, the subpoenas covered five journalists involved in preparing the investigations — Tyler Pager, Eric Lipton, Adam Goldman, Eric Schmitt, and Julian E. Barnes — as the department seeks to obtain their testimony and the materials in their possession in order to determine the source of what it described as a leak of sensitive national security information.

The New York Times investigations had indicated that the new presidential aircraft, a Boeing 747-8 presented by Qatar, does not include some of the defensive equipment found on the previous presidential plane, particularly anti-missile systems, raising security questions amid recent regional tensions.

Reports said the security concerns prompted the relevant authorities to take precautionary measures during Trump’s stay in Ankara to participate in the NATO summit, including reverting to the use of the old presidential aircraft.

For its part, The New York Times management rejected the legal measures against its journalists, considering the summoning of reporters and the delivery of some subpoenas to their homes by federal agents a threat to press freedom and the public’s right to access information, while the newspaper’s legal counsel, David McCraw, described the move as “an outrageous act.”