The Washington Post building. Photo / John McDonnell, The Washington Post
The FBI executed a search warrant today at a Washington Post reporter’s home as part of an investigation into a United States government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.
The reporter, Hannah Natanson, was at her home in Virginia at the time of the search.
Federal agents searched her home and her devices, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch. One of the laptops was her personal computer, the other a Post-issued laptop.
It is exceptionally rare for US law enforcement officials to conduct searches at reporters’ homes.
Federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources or information.
In an email to the Post’s newsroom, executive editor Matt Murray called the search an “extraordinary, aggressive action” that is “deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work”.
Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the probe.
The warrant said that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.
“This past week, at the request of the Department of [Defence] War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” Attorney-General Pam Bondi said in a social media post.
“The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country,” Bondi wrote.
Natanson has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and the criminal complaint filed against Perez-Lugones does not accuse him of leaking classified information he is alleged to have taken.
In his email to the newspaper’s staff, Murray wrote: “Early this morning, FBI agents showed up unannounced at the doorstep of our colleague Hannah Natanson, searched her home, and proceeded to seize her electronic devices.
“According to the government warrant, the raid was in connection with an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials. We are told Hannah, and the Post, are not a target.
“The Washington Post has a long history of zealous support for robust press freedoms. The entire institution stands by those freedoms and our work.
“We have been in close touch with Hannah, with authorities and with legal counsel and will keep you updated as we learn more. In the meantime, the best thing all of us can do is to continue to vigorously exercise those freedoms as we do every day,” the email said
Natanson covers the US federal workforce and has been a part of the Washington Post’s most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump Administration.
In December, Natanson wrote a first-person account about her experience covering the workforce as President Donald Trump’s Administration created upheaval across the federal Government.
She detailed how she posted her secure phone number to an online forum for government workers and amassed more than 1000 sources, with federal workers frequently contacting her to share frustrations and accounts from their offices.
While it is not unusual for FBI agents to conduct leak investigations of reporters who publish sensitive government information, it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal authorities in Maryland charged Perez-Lugones, a Navy veteran, last week with unlawfully retaining national defence information. He had an initial court appearance and is scheduled to appear again in court tomorrow.
In April, Bondi rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented officials from searching reporters’ phone records when trying to identify government personnel who have provided sensitive information to news organisations.
Bondi said in an internal memo at the time that the media should not be afforded such protections, noting leaks of government information during the Trump Administration.
“This conduct is illegal and wrong and it must stop,” she wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post.
Bondi said that the Justice Department would search reporters’ communication records only when other investigative methods had been exhausted. The search warrant and seizures appeared to be Natanson’s first interaction with investigators.
Historically, the Justice Department does not investigate or prosecute reporters who share information that is given to them by confidential sources.
Under Bondi’s predecessor, Attorney-General Merrick Garland, internal regulations prohibited law enforcement officials from issuing subpoenas to reporters or conducting searches to obtain the identities of their sources or information for criminal investigations, including investigations against government employees accused of leaking to the media.
If law enforcement did take investigatory steps against reporters, top Justice Department officials needed to sign off on those steps and publicly report the actions.
First Amendment advocacy organisations condemned the FBI’s search of a reporter’s home, saying it undermines a free press.
“Any search targeting a journalist warrants intense scrutiny because these kinds of searches can deter and impede reporting that is vital to our democracy,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute.
“Attorney-General Bondi has weakened guidelines that were intended to protect the freedom of the press, but there are still important legal limits, including constitutional ones, on the Government’s authority to use subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to obtain information from journalists.”
- Juan Benn contributed to this report.
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