FBI searches home of Washington Post journalist over alleged Pentagon leak

Summary

• The FBI searched Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home as part of a leak investigation related to Pentagon contractor Aurelio Perez-Lugones.
• Perez-Lugones is accused of unlawfully retaining national defence information; documents marked "secret" were found at his home.
• Press-freedom advocates criticised the search as a threat to media, highlighting Trump administration policies regarding reporters' records.

WASHINGTON - The FBI on Jan 14 searched the home of a Washington Post journalist who has written about US federal job cuts, in a move the newspaper described as “highly unusual and aggressive.”

Attorney-General Pam Bondi said the search was part of an investigation into an alleged leak from the Pentagon, which has introduced new restrictive media policies under President Donald Trump.

Ms Bondi said the journalist “was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor” and that the search warrant was executed after a request from the Defence Department.

The Post named the reporter as Ms Hannah Natanson and said federal agents seized a work laptop, a personal laptop, her phone and a watch from her home in Virginia, outside Washington.

Agents told Ms Natanson she is not the focus of the probe.

The paper reported that law enforcement was investigating Mr Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator with top-level security clearance who is accused of taking home intelligence documents found in his lunchbox and his basement.

Mr Perez-Lugones, who served in the US Navy before working as a Pentagon contractor, was arrested last week in Maryland, according to court documents that do not mention any contact with journalists.

“The leaker is currently behind bars,” Ms Bondi said on social media.

“The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security.”

In December, Ms Natanson wrote how she posted her secure phone number on an online forum for government workers and many contacted her about their experiences of radical cutbacks and policy changes in Mr Trump’s second term.

The Defence Department in 2025 restricted media access inside the Pentagon, forced some outlets to vacate offices in the building and drastically reduced the number of briefings for journalists.

US and international news outlets including The New York Times, AP, AFP and Fox News declined to sign the new media rules
and were stripped of their press access credentials. AFP