Trump Sends Federal Agents To Reporters' Doorsteps Over Story That His Donated Qatari Jet Is Too Dangerous To Fly, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Press Could Still Tell Americans Their President's Plane Might Not Be Safe

WASHINGTON. In a firm defense of national security, the Trump Justice Department this week dispatched federal agents to the homes of four New York Times reporters, resolving a long-standing concern that the American public could still learn its president had been advised his airplane is not safe to board.

The reporting in question, published Wednesday, revealed that the Secret Service had urged the president to depart last month's NATO summit in Turkey aboard an older Air Force One rather than the Boeing 747 donated to him by the government of Qatar, citing security concerns about the aircraft. The story did not allege that the plane had fallen out of the sky, only that the officials charged with keeping the president alive would prefer he not find out whether it could.

Before the article ran, a senior FBI official contacted a Times reporter and editor to request that the story be held, declining to say why, and asked that the newspaper identify the people who had provided the information. When the paper published anyway, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Jay Clayton, issued grand jury subpoenas to reporters Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt, some of which were hand-delivered to their front doors by federal agents. The four have been ordered to appear before a grand jury and explain who told them the president's gift plane might kill him.

Sources within the administration characterized the effort as a routine matter of protecting sensitive information, noting that the most sensitive information of all is any information the president would prefer not to have printed. Officials expressed confidence that once the journalists disclosed their confidential sources, the underlying question of whether the aircraft is airworthy could be safely returned to the classified status it deserves.

"The appearance of Federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects," said David McCraw, the newspaper's deputy general counsel, in a statement the administration was reportedly reading closely for additional names.

At press time, the Secret Service had reconfirmed that the plane is unsafe, and the president had reconfirmed that he intends to keep it.