The Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting under direct White House direction, has launched an inquiry to identify officials who disclosed classified details about security gaps on the Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar and now serving as Air Force One. Investigators are seeking to interview passengers and Secret Service agents who accompanied President Donald Trump on a recent trip to a NATO summit in Ankara, and have issued federal grand jury subpoenas to several New York Times reporters. The newspaper has filed a motion to quash, arguing the subpoenas represent a bad-faith attempt to punish its coverage and violate constitutional protections for journalists.

Viewed from Washington, the Justice Department insists it is targeting government leakers, not the press. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the reporters as material witnesses, while White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel are personally overseeing the probe. Patel cancelled a scheduled trip to Chicago to establish a command centre inside the White House, a move that, according to legal analysts in the capital, blurs the traditional separation between the executive and federal law enforcement. A White House official defended the investigation, stating that any leak endangering the president’s security constitutes a national security threat.

The leaked reports, published by the New York Times, revealed that the Secret Service had advised Trump to use the older, purpose-built Air Force One for the leg from Turkey to Britain because the Qatari jet lacked certain defensive countermeasures, including systems designed to defeat heat-seeking missiles. Trump publicly claimed the switch was for nostalgia, but officials cited renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran as the operational reason. The $400 million aircraft, donated in 2025 and painted in a dark blue and gold livery, is still undergoing an estimated $400 million in security modifications. As part of the inquiry, some officials who travelled with the president were asked to surrender their mobile phones, though not all complied.

From the perspective of allied capitals in Europe, the episode highlights the operational risks of integrating a foreign-donated aircraft into the presidential fleet before it is fully retrofitted with the defensive suite of the legacy VC-25A. The legal confrontation in New York marks the latest escalation in the administration’s intensified pursuit of leakers, following the reversal of Biden-era policies that limited prosecutors’ ability to seize journalists’ communications. The New York Times’s motion to quash is now before a federal judge, while FBI interviews with witnesses continue. The case is expected to set a significant precedent for the scope of executive power to compel testimony from reporters about confidential sources.