4 Reporters Subpoenaed After Asking About President Trump’s Qatari Air Force One’s Defenses

On Friday, federal agents delivered grand jury subpoenas to four New York Times journalists, arriving in some cases at their homes, days after the paper reported the Secret Service had urged President Donald Trump to leave Turkey aboard an older jet rather than his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One.

The subpoenas order Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt to testify Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Manhattan “in regard to an alleged violation of criminal law,” according to the Times, which says it will fight the order.

David McCraw, the paper’s newsroom lawyer, said the sight of federal agents on reporters’ doorsteps “should shock the conscience of any American.” Issuing them was Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, whom Trump nominated last month to serve as director of national intelligence, the Times reported.

CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that FBI Director Kash Patel met with White House officials on Friday about the leak investigation, then spoke with the president by phone.

The Justice Department issued similar subpoenas twice this year, first to Washington Post reporters, then to the Wall Street Journal. It withdrew both. The new subpoenas do not specify the alleged violation under investigation, the Times reported.

Two Planes Left Turkey

Trump departed Wednesday’s NATO summit in Ankara aboard the baby-blue Boeing VC-25A that has carried presidents since the early 1990s, a jet he has said he wants to retire. Ahead to RAF Mildenhall in England flew the Qatari-gifted 747 he calls the finest ever built, a stop Trump said was arranged so troops stationed there could tour it.

According to the Times, citing people briefed on the flight planning, the Secret Service recommended the older jet as a precaution after fighting with Iran escalated again. Trump took the recommendation.

Reporters aboard the legacy plane were told to keep their window blinds down, an unusual request on a presidential flight, which Trump attributed to adversaries watching.

Asked whether he knew of any credible Iranian threats to the aircraft, he brushed the question aside. “I have a threat all the time. I’m No. 1 on their list,” he said, while denying that security concerns drove the swap. At Mildenhall, he would rejoin the Qatari jet for his flight back home.

The swap placed two agencies’ positions into conflict. The Secret Service, responsible for the president’s protection, recommended the older aircraft for the flight out of Turkey. The Air Force, which operates the presidential fleet, maintains that the gifted jet was never a risk.

​The Plane, the Plane

The aircraft Qatar handed over is a Boeing 747-8, about 14 years old, converted for presidential work in about a year. It was pushed into service last week with its first presidential flight on July 1. Officially, it flies as the VC-25B bridge aircraft, a stopgap until Boeing delivers two purpose-built jets now expected around 2028.

An aircraft serving as Air Force One shouldn’t be confused with a luxury aircraft. Built as flying command posts, they’ve been hardened for national emergencies. The original VC-25A was built near the end of the Cold War to withstand the effects of a nuclear detonation, according to the Associated Press.

It carries a complement of antimissile countermeasures, an onboard operating room, plus the ability to refuel in midair. Inside sits the secure communications suite that lets a president take a classified briefing, then reach the military to issue orders from the air.

Officials have not said publicly whether the Qatari jet carries the same protections. Such specifications are typically classified.

Evidence or Assurance

Photographs taken since the unveiling show the gifted jet lacks some of the missile-detection systems fitted to the older planes, the AP reported. Jeremiah Gertler, a senior analyst at the Teal Group, an aviation consultancy, told the wire service that the missing countermeasures, along with a thinner array of communications antennas, suggested a plane suited to domestic hops rather than hostile skies.

Others put their names to the doubt. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he does not believe the jet has the protections of the plane it replaces.

Andrew Hunter, a former Air Force official in the Biden administration, told the Times that the hardest work, advanced missile defenses plus shielding the wiring against a nuclear blast, remained uncertain of completion. U.S. officials told CBS News the plane was rushed into service, missing some capabilities the mission requires.

A law enforcement official briefed on the aircraft told MS NOW it lacks midair refueling along with missile defenses, though the deeper worry was command and control, the flying-situation-room function that turns a jet into a place a president can run a crisis.

An Air Force spokesperson said the service is confident the bridge aircraft is safe, secure, and fitted with the advanced technology a presidential mission demands. They also declined to say why Trump changed planes.

White House communications director Steven Cheung, in a statement to Military.com, described the jet as state-of-the-art, protected by high-level security measures, adding that the White House uses “every tool at our disposal,” including what he called “distraction and misdirection,” to address threats against the president.​

Time and Money

National security officials have said that converting an ordinary airframe into a secure Air Force One typically takes years, eventually costing billions, MS NOW reports. This retrofit ran for about 10 months.

The Marine Corps spent more than two decades before the VH-92A Patriot finally flew a president in 2024, its secure communications keeping it grounded from the top job long after the airframe was ready.

Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink told Congress last year he thought upgrades would probably run under $400 million. Outside estimates have ballooned this estimate to $1 billion. What the money bought remains classified as well.

Ethical Execution

The security questions landed atop an ethics dispute that has trailed the plane since Qatar offered it. Accepting a jet of that value from a foreign government drew objections from Democrats, along with a few Republicans.

The president has rejected those concerns, calling the plane a gift with no strings attached. He has pledged to send the plane to his presidential library after his term, an authority that remains unsettled.

However, the four reporters are scheduled to appear before the grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday. As of Saturday, neither the White House nor the Justice Department had responded to requests for comment on the subpoenas, according to CBS News.