WASHINGTON — The FBI conducted a raid at the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of a broader investigation into the leak of classified government information, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on Wednesday.
The agency executed a search warrant at the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson, who covers the Trump administration and the federal workforce for the Washington-based paper. FBI agents seized her phone, two laptops — including her work and personal devices — and a Garmin watch, according to the agency.
Bondi said the reporter had allegedly obtained and reported classified information that was illegally leaked to her by Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor who is accused of taking classified intelligence reports home. Perez-Lugones is currently “behind bars,” Bondi said.
“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 in a statement.
It’s incredibly rare for law enforcement officials to search reporters’ homes, as federal regulations are designed to protect the press from search warrants attempting to seize their work materials or identify their sources. There are exceptions when the reporters themselves are the subject of the investigation, which Natanson is not.
Perez-Lugones has not been accused of leaking the classified information he allegedly took home. However, federal agents have reportedly suspected he had been mishandling classified information “about an unidentified foreign country,” according to The New York Times.
In this incident, Perez-Lugones is accused of printing confidential documents he was not authorized to obtain and took notes of a classified report related to government activity home with him, according to the affidavit. Those documents were found in his lunchbox and basement.
Perez-Lugones was charged on Friday on charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information. He appeared in court for his first proceeding on Friday, and he is scheduled for another appearance on Thursday.