Star Metro - Justice Dept withdraws NY Times subpoenas over Trump plane report

The Times said federal prosecutors agreed at a court hearing in New York before District Judge Arun Subramanian to "unilaterally withdraw the subpoenas at this time."

The newspaper had challenged the government requests for phone records of reporters and grand jury testimony as an attempt to "intimidate" the press and filed a motion to have them quashed.

The subpoenas were issued after a Times report that the Qatari-gifted Air Force One lacked certain security countermeasures, including anti-missile defenses.

Qatar's royal family donated the luxury airliner last year after Trump complained about the state of the two aging jets that have served as the official US presidential planes since 1990.

Trump took his first flight on the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 plane on July 1, but questions swirled after he took an older jet home from a NATO meeting in Ankara on July 10.

Turkey borders Iran, and hostilities between Washington and Tehran had flared up again at the time.

Trump denied any security concerns and said he was sending the new plane to a British airbase so it could be toured by US troops.

He later said the Qatari-gifted Air Force One needed to be sent off for a month to be "maxed out." He did not give details about how the plane would be "maxed out."

Critics have raised a host of ethical, constitutional and security concerns about the gifting of an aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars by a foreign power like Qatar.

The plane features a new Trump-designed livery in red, white and navy blue, in a change from the previous white and light blue.

Two brand-new Boeing Air Force Ones are due to be delivered later this decade after a series of delays and cost overruns.

M.Johnston--SMC