FBI searches Washington Post reporter's home amid government contractor investigation

The FBI searched Hannah Natanson's devices and seized a phone and a Garmin watch at her Virginia home, the Post said. An affidavit says the search was related to an investigation into Maryland system administrator Aurelio Perez-Lugones.

FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of taking home government secrets, the newspaper reported.

The FBI searched journalist Hannah Natanson's devices and seized a phone and a Garmin watch at her Virginia home, the Post said.

The Post was told that Natanson and the newspaper are not targets of the probe, executive editor Matt Murray said in an email to colleagues.

“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.”

Natanson covers the Trump administration’s transformation of the federal government and recently published a piece describing how she gained hundreds of new sources, leading a colleague to call her “the federal government whisperer.” She did respond to inquiries by NBC Washington.

While classified documents investigations aren't unusual, the search of a reporter's home marks an escalation in the government's efforts to crack down on leaks.

"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.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was done at the request of the Pentagon.

President Donald Trump's 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 in a post on X.

Government contractor in Laurel accused of taking home classified documents

An affidavit says the search was related to an investigation into a system administrator in Maryland who authorities allege took home classified reports, the newspaper reported.

The contractor is Navy veteran Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who is a system administrator in Maryland and who has been charged with “unlawful retention of national defense information,” according to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Maryland.

Perez-Lugones, a Laurel, Maryland, resident, is a Miami-born U.S. citizen who "possesses a Top Secret security clearance,” the complaint states. He made his first court appearance in the case last Friday.

The FBI has accused Perez-Lugones of searching databases containing classified information without authorization and either printing or taking screenshots of that material, according to the complaint.

That material that Perez-Lugones allegedly began collecting in October is described in the complaint as "related to a foreign country."

“Perez-Lugones had no need to know and was not authorized to search for, access, view, screenshot, or print any of this information,” the complaint states.

The FBI had been watching Perez-Lugones as recently as last week, doing surveillance of him while he was in a SCIFF, which is a secure room for handling top secret information, the complaint states.

Perez-Lugones was monitored logging in to systems. And the complaint includes a photo of him from January 6, leaving his workplace with a black bag.

Two days later, federal investigators searched Perez-Lugones' house in Laurel and found a document marked "SECRET" in the basement, the complaint states.

"While searching Perez-Lugones' car, investigators located a lunch box in which a document was marked as SECRET," the complaint states. "One of more of these documents are related to national defense."

The criminal complaint against Perez-Lugones does not mention any ties to Natanson.

An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday. Justice Department officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Washington Post said Wednesday that it was monitoring and reviewing the situation. An email seeking comment was sent to lawyers for Perez-Lugones.

In December, the Post published Natanson’s first-person account of being contacted by more than a thousand current and former federal workers about Trump administration upheaval in 2025.

A Harvard University grad, Natanson was also part of the Post team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to her bio on the Post site.

The Justice Department over the years has developed, and revised, internal guidelines governing how it will respond to news media leaks.

In April, Bondi issued new guidelines saying prosecutors would again have the authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for government officials who make “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists.

The moves rescinded a Biden administration policy that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations — a practice long decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.

The press freedom organization PEN America decried the search and said it threatens journalists’ ability to do their job.

“Targeting a reporter in their own home as part of a federal law enforcement action is an extraordinary escalation that strikes at the heart of press freedom. A government action this rare and aggressive signals a growing assault on independent reporting and undermines the First Amendment. It is intended to intimidate sources and chill journalists’ ability to gather news and hold the government accountable,” Tim Richardson of the group said in a statement.

“Such behavior is more commonly associated with authoritarian police states than democratic societies that recognize journalism’s essential role in informing the public,” he continued. “The Justice Department and the FBI must immediately provide a clear, public justification for why such an extreme measure was taken against a journalist, and Congress must provide proper oversight.”