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The FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified national defense information, a move that has alarmed press freedom advocates and newsroom leaders.
The reporter, Hannah Natanson, was at her Virginia home when FBI agents arrived and seized her phone, work and personal laptops, and a Garmin smartwatch, according to The Washington Post. Investigators told Natanson she is not the focus of the probe, the newspaper reported.
The investigation centers on Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Navy veteran and government contractor in Maryland who has been charged with unlawful retention of national defense information, according to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 9 in U.S. District Court for Maryland.
Contractor accused of mishandling classified materials
Perez-Lugones, a Miami-born U.S. citizen with a Top Secret security clearance, made his first court appearance Friday. Federal prosecutors allege he improperly accessed classified databases without authorization and either printed or photographed sensitive materials beginning in October.
The documents are described in court filings as related to a foreign country. Two federal law enforcement officials said that country is Venezuela.
“Perez-Lugones had no need to know and was not authorized to search for, access, view, screenshot, or print any of this information,” prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
Investigators say they monitored Perez-Lugones while he was inside a secure compartmented information facility, or SCIF, last week. Surveillance included observations of him logging into classified systems and leaving his workplace on Jan. 6 carrying a black bag, according to the filing.
Two days later, agents searched his home in Laurel, Maryland, where they found documents marked “SECRET” in his basement, the complaint states. A separate search of his car uncovered additional classified material inside a lunch box.
Perez-Lugones faces a detention hearing Thursday in federal court in Baltimore. Prosecutors have argued he should remain jailed pending trial, saying he poses a danger to the community.
“Agents seized documents containing national defense information from the Defendant’s car and home,” the government wrote. “However, the Government cannot seize everything in his head.”
Search of reporter’s home sparks backlash
The criminal complaint does not reference Natanson or The Washington Post. But Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that the Defense Department requested the search “at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
The Post did not immediately respond to Bondi’s claim.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters ahead of a White House signing ceremony, said that “the leaker on Venezuela” had been identified and jailed, though he did not name Perez-Lugones or elaborate.
Matt Murray, executive editor of The Washington Post, told staff in an internal email that the paper was not the target of the investigation but called the FBI’s actions deeply troubling.
“This extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,” Murray wrote, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.
The Washington Post Guild said it was “appalled” by the seizure of Natanson’s devices, calling it a threat to press freedom.
Press freedom concerns mount
Former Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the search appeared aimed at uncovering Natanson’s sources.
“There were protections in place to stop this from happening in the last admin and Bondi rescinded those regs,” Hinojosa wrote on X. “The reporter is NOT the ‘leaker.’”
Last April, the Justice Department ended a policy instituted under former Attorney General Merrick Garland that limited the use of subpoenas and search warrants against journalists.
Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, described the FBI search as “a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press.”
The Society of Professional Journalists warned the action could deter both reporters and whistleblowers.
“This kind of aggressive law enforcement action against a journalist has a chilling effect not only on reporters, but on the sources who rely on them to expose wrongdoing,” the group said in a statement.
Veteran reporter on federal workforce beat
Natanson covers the federal workforce and has reported extensively on upheaval across government agencies during Trump’s second term. Colleagues have dubbed her the “federal government whisperer.”
She was assigned early in the administration to cover Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s sweeping efforts to shrink the federal workforce.
Natanson, a Harvard University graduate, was also part of The Washington Post team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
