On the morning of January 14, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant in the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson.
FBI agents informed Natanson that she was not the subject of a criminal investigation. Rather, the FBI is seeking information regarding a Maryland system administrator, Aurelio Perez-Lugones. Perez-Lugones is suspected of bringing classified information to their home, as intelligence reports “were found in his lunchbox and his basement…” Perez-Lugones allegedly mishandled classified information relating to an unspecified country, according to court documents. However, the personal devices of Natanson were searched, including her phone, laptop (as well as another laptop issued by The Washington Post), and a Garmin watch.
It is unusual for the FBI to execute aggressive warrants against the property of reporters. While Attorney General Pam Bondi removed a protection implemented by the Biden administration that prevents investigators from searching the phone records of reporters to identify government officials who provided them with sensitive information, the Privacy Protection Act remains in place, which prohibits government searches on reporters’ work material unless they themselves had committed a relevant crime. As the FBI agents informed Natanson that she was not the suspect of a criminal investigation, this may be an illegal search. It is unknown if the FBI attempted alternative means to a search warrant when pursuing the information they wanted.
Natanson’s work has made her a feasible target for the Trump administration. During the chaotic DOGE era of the second Trump administration, in which the federal workforce faced upheaval, she received thousands of tips and grievances from federal employees after posting her “secure phone number to an online forum for government workers…”
Experts have warned that this search can have a chilling effect on press freedom.
