Trump defends DOJ subpoenas of NY Times reporters; Google also was targeted

President Donald Trump on Friday defended his Department of Justice’s issuance of subpoenas to New York Times reporters, as it was revealed that Google also received a subpoena in the same criminal investigation of the leak of information about the president’s new Air Force One plane.

Trump’s defense of the subpoenas came a day after the DOJ told a federal judge in New York that it was withdrawing those demands for grand jury testimony by Times reporters and their phone records in connection with an article about the president’s Qatari-donated plane.

“We’re not after journalists,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re after leakers. We’re after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases.”

“And the way you find them is through journalists,” the president said.

“That person should be found, and the way you find them is to tell the journalist, if it’s something having to do with national security, you tell the journalist: ‘Who is it?’ ” Trump said.

“And we have a long way to go with that case,” he added.

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