The Washington Post demanded in a court filing on Wednesday that the government return reporter Hannah Natanson’s “confidential newsgathering materials” that were seized at her home last week as part of an FBI leak probe.
Federal agents executed a search warrant at Natanson’s home and removed two laptops, two phones, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch, according to the Post.
It is extremely rare for the government to search a reporter’s home and the seizure alarmed journalists and First Amendment experts. Typically, the government is expected to first subpoena a reporter’s materials in an investigation, providing an opportunity to push back in court. Attorney Ted Boutrous described the search to TheWrap as “truly an over-the-top intrusion on newsgathering and freedom of the press under the First Amendment.”
In a Wednesday statement, the Post said: “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. We have asked the court to order the immediate return of all seized materials and prevent their use. Anything less would license future newsroom raids and normalize censorship by search warrant.”
The government’s leak investigation is focused on a former government contractor, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who has been charged with illegally retaining classified materials.
A Justice Department official told the Post that Perez-Lugones “was messaging Natanson when he was arrested earlier this month.” The paper also noted that the contractor “has not been accused in court of illegally leaking materials to the media.”
A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Natanson has doggedly reported on the Trump administration’s remaking of the federal workforce, revealing in a moving first-person piece last month that she gained 1,169 new sources in the process.
According to the filing, “almost none” of the seized materials were relevant to the search warrant, and “the government seized this proverbial haystack in an attempt to locate a needle.”
