Federal investigators searched the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday as part of a leak investigation involving a Pentagon contractor accused of improperly removing classified material, the Justice Department said.
The reporter, Hannah Natanson, who has closely covered President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, had a phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch seized during a search of her Virginia residence, according to the Post. Natanson has written extensively about the federal workforce and recently described how she expanded her network of sources — a reach that prompted one colleague to refer to her as “the federal government whisperer.”
Investigations involving classified documents are not uncommon. But searching a journalist’s home represents a sharper step in the government’s crackdown on leaks. The Post was informed that Natanson and the newspaper are not targets of the investigation, executive editor Matt Murray told colleagues in an email.
“Nonetheless, this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,” Murray wrote. “The Washington Post has a long history of zealous support for robust press freedoms. The entire institution stands by those freedoms and our work.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was carried out at the Defense Department’s request and alleged that the journalist was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
“Leaking classified information puts America’s national security and the safety of our military heroes in serious jeopardy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. “President Trump has zero tolerance for it and will continue to aggressively crack down on these illegal acts moving forward.”
The search warrant said the action was connected to an investigation into a system engineer and IT specialist working for a government contractor in Maryland who authorities say took classified materials home, the Post reported. The employee, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, was charged earlier this month with unlawful retention of national defense information, according to court records. He has not been charged with sharing classified information, and court filings do not accuse him of leaking.
Perez-Lugones, who held a top secret security clearance, is accused of printing classified and sensitive documents at work. During searches of his Maryland home and car this month, authorities said they found documents marked “SECRET,” including one discovered inside a lunchbox, according to court papers.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday. The Washington Post said it is monitoring and reviewing the situation. An email seeking comment was sent to lawyers for Perez-Lugones, who is expected to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
Press freedom advocates warned that the search could deter journalists from pursuing reporting that scrutinizes government actions.
“Physical searches of reporters’ devices, homes, and belongings are some of the most invasive investigative steps law enforcement can take,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press president Bruce Brown said. “While we won’t know the government’s arguments about overcoming these very steep hurdles until the affidavit is made public, this is a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press.”
Over time, the Justice Department has created and revised internal rules governing how prosecutors pursue leak investigations involving the news media.
In April, Bondi rescinded a policy from President Joe Biden’s administration that limited the government’s ability to secretly seize journalists’ phone records in leak probes — a practice long criticized by press organizations and civil liberties groups.
That shift restored prosecutors’ authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to identify government officials accused of making “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists. In the memo announcing the change, Bondi wrote that members of the press are “presumptively entitled to advance notice of such investigative activities,” and that subpoenas should be “narrowly drawn.” The memo also says search warrants must include “protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into potentially protected materials or newsgathering activities.”
The posture toward The Washington Post differs from the Justice Department’s response to a separate disclosure of sensitive military information last spring, when a reporter was mistakenly included in a Signal chat involving senior Trump administration officials. Bondi suggested at the time she was reluctant to open an investigation, saying she believed the incident was accidental.
Bondi also echoed administration assertions that the details shared in the chat were not classified. Current and former U.S. officials, however, have said that information such as aircraft launch times and the timing of bomb releases — shared before pilots were even airborne — would typically be considered classified.
