The seizure comes after the Justice Department changed its guidelines to restore prosecutors’ authority to use search warrants in leak investigations, reversing a Biden-era policy that had protected news media from having their records secretly seized during such investigations.
The Washington Post filed a federal court petition on January 21 to recover electronic devices the FBI seized from reporter Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home, arguing the search violated her free speech rights and journalistic protections. A magistrate judge temporarily barred the government from examining the materials and scheduled a February 6 hearing.
Federal agents took a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a smartwatch during the search, which was part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally handling classified information.
The seizure and its scope
The seized material spans years of Natanson’s reporting across hundreds of stories, including communications with confidential sources, according to the Post. Natanson covers Republican President Donald Trump’s transformation of the federal government.
“The outrageous seizure of our reporter’s confidential newsgathering materials chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on these materials,” the Post said in a statement. The newspaper asked the court to order the immediate return of all seized materials and to bar the government from using any of them. “Anything less would license future newsroom raids and normalize censorship by search warrant,” the Post said in its court filing.
The contractor and government’s justification
The search was part of an investigation into Pentagon contractor Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, who was arrested on a charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Perez-Lugones is a U.S. Navy veteran who resides in Laurel, Maryland. He has not been charged with sharing classified information or accused in court papers of leaking.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was done at the request of the Defense Department and that the journalist was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
DOJ’s shifting policy on leak investigations
The Justice Department has internal guidelines governing its response to news media leaks. In April, Bondi issued new guidelines restoring prosecutors’ authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for government officials who make “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists. The new guidelines rescinded a policy from President Joe Biden’s administration that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations.
Press freedom advocates respond
Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the search represented an unprecedented escalation. “It is critical that the court blocks the government from searching through this material until it can address the profound threat to the First Amendment posed by the raid,” Brown said. The search “imperils public interest reporting and will have ramifications far beyond this specific case,” he added.