White House Chief of staff Susie Wiles, U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest aide, and FBI Director Kash Patel helped personally orchestrate a sprawling investigation last week at the White House aimed at determining who in the government leaked information about the security deficiencies of a Qatari-gifted airplane meant to be used as Air Force One – with some officials being asked to turn over their phones to investigators on White House grounds, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trump had fumed over disclosures about the new plane, sources said, and his government quickly stood up an intense leak probe that roiled the government. As the investigation unfolded, at least one U.S. federal agency emailed employees warning that if they were contacted by outside agencies requesting information and devices, they needed to immediately contact their own agency’s attorneys, one source told CNN.
The sources said Patel — who had been preparing to travel to Chicago — was diverted to the White House on Friday to take a hands-on role in running the probe, which became public early the next morning when The New York Times reported that the U.S. Justice Department had issued subpoenas to four of its journalists who reported on security concerns surrounding the new plane.
Patel posted up in an office next to Wiles’ for roughly seven hours, as the two established what one source referred to as a “war room” in the West Wing.
In addition to asking for cell phones, investigators sought information from those who were traveling with Trump or had a role in the trip, including officials across various agencies. Not all officials who were asked to turn over their devices did so, one of the sources told CNN.
The effort reflects the extent to which the White House was willing to exert control over a law enforcement investigation — a significant breach of the Justice Department’s historic independence, though one that has become somewhat common in Trump’s administration. CNN has previously reported that Trump also talked with Patel on the phone about the leak investigation.
CNN has reached out to the White House and FBI for comment.
Journalists and free press advocates have criticized the Justice Department’s move to subpoena the New York Times journalists as an affront to the First Amendment, and the Times has said it plans to fight them in court.
The concerns about the new, US$400 million Qatari-gifted jet came to dominate the conversation in Washington last week when Trump abruptly announced he was sending the new plane ahead to England’s Mildenhall Air Force Base just before he departed a NATO summit in Turkiye. Trump said in a social media post that the change in planes was simply to give U.S. service members stationed at the base “a chance to tour the Aircraft.” He had previously touted the plane, which was remade and repainted to his tastes.
“Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,” he wrote.
Trump departed on an older plane, then switched back at a secure U.S. airbase in the U.K. He downplayed the idea that security was the reason for the switch, though sources have told CNN and other outlets that it was.
“There wasn’t a security concern, except we sent it a little early, same line going back. We sent it a little bit early, so that we could let them see,” Trump said.
Sources told CNN that after Trump travelled to Turkiye for the summit, the security assessment changed, and Wiles briefed Trump that he would need to leave the country on an older vessel. The Qatari plane, sources said, had been quickly retrofitted with defence capabilities but was still not as secure as the older version, which had been built to protect presidents in overseas travel.
One official previously told CNN that the 747 gifted by Qatar was largely seen by the U.S. military and Secret Service as having been “rushed” into service. By contrast, the official noted two new jets acquired as part of a deal Trump renegotiated during his first term have faced serious delays and aren’t expected to be ready until at least 2028. That’s partially due to the host of classified communication and defensive countermeasures that must be affixed, comprehensive design requirements by the military and the time required to train pilots on the unique aircraft.
The exact nature of the security differences between the old and new planes is not fully clear. Aviation observers studying pictures of the aircraft told CNN the new plane appears to lack external modifications to the tail cone associated with a type of directional infrared missile defence system. However, the absence of visible features does not definitively establish which systems are or are not installed.
Kristen Holmes, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
