FBI Searches Washington Post Reporter’s Home In Classified Docs Probe, Leaker ‘Behind Bars’

The FBI executed a search warrant at a Washington Post reporter’s Virginia home on Wednesday morning as the feds investigate a government contractor who’s accused of leaking classified government materials.

Reporter Hannah Natanson, who focuses on “covering the Trump administration’s reshaping of the government,” was at home when FBI agents showed up at her front door and proceeded to search her house and seize two laptops, a phone, and a Garmin watch, the Post reported. Investigators reportedly told Natanson that she is not the target of the investigation. According to the Post, the FBI is looking into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor with top-secret security clearance.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Natanson was reporting on classified information that was “illegally leaked” by a “Pentagon contractor.” Bondi added that the accused leaker, whom she did not publicly identify, is in jail.

“This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” Bondi said. “The leaker is currently behind bars. I am proud to work alongside Secretary Hegseth on this effort. 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.”

Perez-Lugones is a system administrator in Maryland who allegedly took classified intelligence reports to his home. The reports were found in his lunchbox and basement, according to the FBI.

Natanson, who was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize and describes herself as “the federal government whisperer,” wrote in an article published last month that she connected with more than 1,000 sources within the Trump administration after posting her phone number to an online forum for federal government employees. She said federal workers who reached out to her often expressed frustration with the administration.

U.S. law protects journalists who publish classified information, provided they obtained it without coercion and did not ask anyone to break the law. Some of Natanson’s colleagues took to social media to defend her after news broke of the FBI search.

Last year, Bondi ended a policy implemented under former President Joe Biden that prohibited federal agencies from searching reporters’ devices to identify a leaker. Bondi said that under her leadership, federal authorities would search reporters’ devices and records only when necessary and after all other investigative avenues had been exhausted.