The US Department of Justice on Thursday quashed subpoenas for New York Times journalists who wrote articles raising concerns about the security of the new US presidential plane offered by Qatar.
The newspaper said prosecutors agreed during a hearing in federal court in New York to “unilaterally withdraw the subpoenas at this time.”
Seeing it as an attempt to “intimidate” the press, the media filed a request to quash these summons aimed at obtaining the journalists’ telephone records and their testimony in court.
Donald Trump took his first flight on the new Air Force One plane on July 1. But seeing him leave a NATO summit in Türkiye aboard an old aircraft on the 10th, doubts emerged.
According to the New York Times, the device did not carry the same security systems as the previous one, particularly in terms of anti-missile defenses.
Following these revelations, the New York federal prosecutor’s office – headed by a close friend of the American president – issued subpoenas to the authors of these articles.
Donald Trump subsequently declared that this Boeing 747-8 was going to be sent back to the hangar to be improved “as much as possible”.
The New York Times is regularly in the sights of an American executive who multiplies vitriolic criticism, threats and legal complaints against the press that displeases him.
