The RecordExhibit 118
'Give it up or go to jail': going after reporters' sources
Pending means: In court or under criminal investigation right now.
Trump threatened to jail a reporter who would not name the source for a story about a downed U.S. airman in Iran, and his Justice Department has subpoenaed a New York Times freelancer to testify about his sources for another story.
What happened
Trump said the reporter on the Iran story would go to jail if he didn't say who his source was. The Justice Department had already rescinded a Biden-era policy shielding journalists from subpoenas in leak cases. A court filing later revealed the department subpoenaed phone records of journalists and their family members, and Trump has called reporting on depleted munitions treasonous. In February 2026, FBI agents went to the New York home of Matthew Cole, a freelance reporter for the New York Times, to deliver a grand jury subpoena issued by prosecutors in Virginia. It demands his testimony and more than two years of his notes, to identify the sources for a 2025 Times story about a 2019 Navy SEAL mission in North Korea that killed two or three unarmed North Koreans and that Congress was not told about. The Times made the subpoena public on Aug. 1, 2026. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says that from 2001 until this administration, the department used grand jury subpoenas to make reporters appear and reveal confidential sources in three national security leak cases. In July 2026 the department also subpoenaed Times reporters over their Air Force One coverage, then withdrew those subpoenas (see the separate entry).
Where it stands
Cole is contesting the subpoena in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the filings are sealed. On Aug. 14, 2026, the Times and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked the court to unseal them. The reporting we found shows no public ruling, and no journalist held in contempt or charged. The Times is providing Cole's legal defense.
The administration's side
Trump says the leak about the airman endangered him during a rescue mission and is a national security matter. According to RSBN's account of the Times report, the Justice Department told the newspaper it would use all lawful means to identify people who improperly disclose national defense information.
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/reporters/