Judge Sides With Justice Dept. in Dispute Over Subpoena to Times Freelancer

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe magistrate judge’s conclusion is only a recommendation, and a Federal District Court judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue next month.Investigators are seeking the freelance reporter’s testimony as they seek to identify his sources for an article about a top-secret operation in North Korea. Credit...Lucia Vazquez for The New York TimesOct. 5, 2026, 8:52 p.m. ETA federal magistrate judge has sided with the Justice Department over a subpoena issued to a New York Times freelance reporter who wrote about a top-secret mission that went wrong, according to newly unsealed court documents.The magistrate’s conclusion is only a recommendation, and a Federal District Court judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue next month in Newport News, Va. Any decision by that judge could be appealed.Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for the Times, said in a statement, “We applaud the court’s decision to begin unsealing the court records, offering visibility into how subpoenas like this are designed to undermine and discourage the sort of investigative reporting that the public needs and deserves to understand how their government and military operates.”The Justice Department first issued a subpoena to the reporter, Matthew Cole, in February, setting off a monthslong legal fight that came to light publicly only in August. A number of court documents were unsealed on Monday, while others remain sealed.Investigators are seeking Mr. Cole’s testimony about two years’ worth of his contacts and conversations, as they seek to identify his sources for the article about a top-secret operation in North Korea. Prosecutors argue that Mr. Cole is a witness to a potential crime and the disclosure of classified information, and that his status as a reporter does not protect him from being compelled to provide evidence.On Sept. 5, 2025, Mr. Cole, along with a staff reporter for The Times, Dave Philipps, revealed the details of a Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in 2019. The article described how the SEAL members killed two or three unarmed North Koreans who appeared to have stumbled upon the mission, a classified operation to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the country’s coastline. The article drew on interviews with two dozen people.After the article was published, the Justice Department launched a leak investigation to try to identify the sources for the information, and wants to compel Mr. Cole to help the department.Mr. Cole’s lawyer, David A. O’Neil, has sought to quash the subpoena, arguing that the effort is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to curtail First Amendment rights by hounding journalists.On Monday, Mr. O’Neil called the subpoena “another attempt by the Trump administration to punish the free press for doing its job. We are confident the district court will uphold the important First Amendment interests at stake.”The magistrate’s report and recommendation were filed in July, and concluded that while the Trump administration may have acted inappropriately in other leak investigations, lawyers for Mr. Cole had not established that prosecutors did so in seeking to subpoena him.“The extensive record described in Cole’s briefing demonstrates that the deterioration in the relationship between the government and the media is a matter of legitimate concern,” Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Miller wrote. “In this case, the United States has articulated a legitimate and tailored law enforcement need for Cole’s testimony.”Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT