The FBI executed a search warrant on the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into the leaking of government secrets.
Hannah Natanson was at the property in Alexandria, Virginia, when federal agents arrived Wednesday morning, the newspaper said.
The 29-year-old journalist was raided as part of a probe into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials, per the outlet.
Natanson said her Garmin watch, phone and two laptops were seized during the raid. One of the devices was her personal computer, while the other was issued by the Washington Post.
Investigators told Natanson she is not the focus of the investigation, which is looking into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland system administrator who has top secret security clearance.
Perez-Lugones was charged just days ago with illegally retaining classified documents after the FBI searched his home and found intelligence reports inside a lunchbox in his basement in Laurel, about 20 miles from Annapolis, according to an affidavit.
He logged into a classified system and took notes throughout the week on a notepad before taking the pages home with him, according to an affidavit filed Friday, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Perez-Lugones, a 61-year-old Navy veteran, also accessed the databases last fall and took a screenshot of a classified report about a foreign country, the affidavit stated.
Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, was at her home in Virginia when federal agents descended on her home on Wednesday morning
The FBI executed a search warrant on the journalist’s home as part of a probe into the leaking of government secrets
‘Perez-Lugones had no need to know and was not authorized to search for, access, view, screenshot or print any of this information,’ the legal document continued.
During his initial court appearance on Friday, Perez-Lugones was ordered to be held in federal custody pending a detention hearing, per The Baltimore Sun.
Journalists are often investigated for publishing sensitive government information; however, it is unusual for the FBI to search their homes.
Natanson covers the ‘Trump administration’s reshaping of the government and its effects,’ her profile page states.
According to the outlet, she provides the ‘most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump administration.’
Natanson was part of the Washington Post team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of the US Capitol attack on January 6.
She attended Harvard University from 2015 to 2019 and wrote for the Ivy League’s publication, The Harvard Crimson.
Investigators told Natanson she is not the focus of the investigation, which is looking into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland system administrator who has top secret security clearance
According to the outlet, she provides the ‘most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump administration’
Natanson recently published a first-person piece about how she has gained hundreds of new sources, leading one of her colleagues to call her ‘the federal government whisperer.’
The Daily Mail contacted the FBI for comment.
Breaking news… updates to follow.
