(CNN) Last month, Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson penned a first-person piece about her long year as “the federal government whisperer,” receiving tips from hundreds of federal workers affected by President Donald Trump’s transformation of the government.
Early Wednesday morning, FBI agents arrived at Natanson’s home and executed a search warrant. One phone and two computers were seized, the Post reported.
“This extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,” Post editor Matt Murray said in a memo to the newsroom.
Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged in a post on X that Natanson was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
FBI Director Kash Patel alleged in a separate statement that “an individual at the Washington Post” obtained and reported “classified, sensitive military information from a government contractor.” The FBI has not charged the reporter and has not presented evidence to support its claim.
The Post had no immediate response to the allegations. Earlier, a Post spokesperson said the publication was monitoring the situation.
The highly unusual search immediately set off alarms among press freedom advocates.
“Searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes, and we must ensure that these practices are not normalized here,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute.
Press advocates also stressed that journalists do not commit a crime by reporting on or publishing leaked documents, even when the sources who disclose them may face legal exposure.
“Journalists are legally permitted to publish government secrets and the courts have again and again reaffirmed that First Amendment right,” Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA, told CNN.
Natanson was told that she is not a target of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Instead, it appears to be related to an ongoing probe of a government contractor in Maryland.
According to the Post’s own story, “the warrant said that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.”
Perez-Lugones was charged last week with illegally retaining classified documents, according to a federal affidavit. He is scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday.
Bondi did not name any specific individual in her statement, but said, “The leaker is currently behind bars.”
She said the search of Natanson’s home was “at the request of the Department of War,” using the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.
“The Trump administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country,” Bondi said.
Hours after the FBI searched Natanson’s home, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the “leaker on Venezuela” has “been found and is in jail right now.”
The Justice Department has not said in court documents that the person in custody related to the FBI search specifically revealed information on Venezuela, and Trump provided no further details.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-washington-post-search-doj
