11/07/2026 22:10 - Internacionales
According to the Spanish outlet El País, the Administration of President Donald Trump has sparked intense debate over press freedom by subpoenaing four journalists from The New York Times.
Reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Tyler Pager, and Eric Lipton received orders on Friday from the Department of Justice to appear before a grand jury in Manhattan this coming Wednesday. For international readers, a grand jury in the US legal system is a panel of citizens that evaluates whether there is enough evidence to formally charge someone with a crime. In several cases, federal agents arrived at the journalists' homes to deliver the notification.
The Department of Justice maintains that the investigation seeks to clarify national security violations and that the journalists are not the target, but rather those who leaked the classified information. However, the newspaper's lawyer, David McCraw, condemned the act as an attempt to threaten and intimidate independent media, recalling that the US Constitution protects these practices.
The conflict originated from a newspaper report regarding the new presidential plane, a Boeing gifted by the government of Qatar last year, valued at approximately $400 million. The Pentagon (the headquarters of the US Department of Defense) took charge of the aircraft to adapt it to strict security protocols and verify it had no espionage devices.
Trump debuted the plane on July 1, 2026, on a trip to North Dakota and used it this week to travel to Ankara, Turkey, for the NATO summit (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a major Western military alliance). However, he returned to Washington in the older model. The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, revealed that the new plane lacks anti-missile devices and other protections, which would have prompted the Secret Service (the federal agency responsible for protecting the president) to suggest using the older plane for the return trip.
The return on the older plane occurred during a time of maximum international tension. The United States and Iran were exchanging hostilities after Trump proclaimed the end of the truce agreed upon in February. Turkey shares a border with Iran, which added an extra level of precaution to the presidential transfer.
Trump denied the change was due to security failures, arguing he left the new plane at a military base in the United Kingdom so that soldiers stationed there could admire it. The White House assured that the aircraft is equipped with high-level security protocols.
Before the publication, a senior FBI official had contacted the media outlet asking them not to publish the note and to reveal their sources, a request the newspaper rejected. The Press Freedom Foundation issued a statement condemning the measure, pointing out that the need for a free and independent press precedes any questioning of the government's reputation.
This is not the Administration's first clash with the press; similar attempts were previously made with journalists from The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, reaffirming the importance of debates on transparency and source protection in American democracy.
Alfredo S. Quiroga
