A grand jury in Maryland indicted a federal contractor accused of leaking classified information to a Washington Post reporter, charging him with one count of retaining and five counts of sharing sensitive national security information.
The systems administrator in Maryland, 61-year-old Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, has held a top secret security clearance since at least 1995, according to the indictment. He is accused of accessing classified documents from his workplace, printing them out and illegally removing the materials from secured facilities, according to an indictment filed in Maryland federal court on Thursday.
He faces up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
“Perez-Lugones allegedly printed and removed classified documents from his workplace on multiple occasions, took them home, and later passed them to a reporter who used the information in news articles,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “Protecting our country’s secrets is essential to the safety of our most sensitive intelligence, military, and law enforcement operations.”
The investigation of Perez-Lugones led authorities to execute a search warrant last week at the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her electronic devices. A search of a journalist’s home for reasons related to their reporting is unprecedented in recent history and has raised alarms among First Amendment advocates that the Justice Department is seeking to intimidate the press.
The United States has no law that specifically makes it a crime for a journalist to obtain or publish classified information, and Natanson has not been charged or identified as a target of the investigation. She is not named in the indictment against Perez-Lugones and is referred to as “Reporter 1” throughout the document. She declined to comment on the indictment.
According to the indictment, Perez-Lugones’s classified-information leaks were used in at least five stories co-written by Natanson between Oct. 31 and Jan. 9. The indictment alleges that Perez-Lugones had no professional reason to access the classified materials, yet covertly copied and printed information from some of them and took handwritten notes.
In the indictment, federal prosecutors attempt to match the classified materials that the defendant is accused of leaking with articles Natanson co-wrote regarding the U.S. confrontation with Venezuela. Prosecutors pointed to five articles in which they claim classified information appeared.
The indictment alleges that on Oct. 31, three days after Perez-Lugones took screenshots of an intelligence report and pasted them in a Microsoft Word document, The Post published an article that included information which is included in that intelligence report. Natanson co-wrote a story published that day on efforts by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to obtain support from Russia and China to bolster his country’s defenses.
The other articles co-written by Natanson that were referenced by prosecutors and Justice Department officials included a Nov. 11 story that reported on sites that could be targets if the U.S. attacked Venezuela; a Dec. 8 article that reported on Maduro’s efforts to hold onto power, a Jan. 5 article that reported on a U.S. assessment that the Trump administration’s raid to capture Maduro killed about 75 people; and a piece which published after U.S. forces seized Maduro and brought him to the U.S. for trial that looked back at the unsuccessful efforts by the Vatican and other parties to negotiate a peaceful way for him to leave the country.
Authorities arrested Perez-Lugones on Jan. 8. When they searched Perez-Lugones’s devices, authorities said, they discovered that he had been messaging “Reporter 1” in recent days. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against the defendant at the time, and he has remained in federal custody since his arrest.
“The messages discussed the classification levels of certain documents, set forth details about which U.S. government agencies had produced different reports, and explained how certain documents would be referenced in forthcoming news articles,” the indictment stated. “As part of these messages, Perez-Lugones also sent audio messages to Reporter 1 wherein he provided additional details about the information that he had transmitted.”
The Post and Natanson are litigating the seizure of the electronic devices to ensure that federal authorities do not improperly search them. According to a court filing by The Post, the devices include a large amount of information, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with the allegations against Perez-Lugones.
A federal magistrate judge in Virginia — where Natanson resides and the search warrant was executed — on Wednesday barred the government from examining the electronic devices, including her phone and two computers, while the legal challenge is being resolved.
Natanson wrote a personal declaration on Wednesday accompanying a Post court filing. In it she said she had not communicated with Perez-Lugones via any platform other than Signal — an encrypted messaging app — and phone. Natanson has not confirmed that Perez-Lugones was a source for the articles referenced in the indictment.
Natanson covers the federal workforce and has been a part of The Post’s most high-profile and sensitive coverage related to government firings, national security and diplomacy during the first year of the second Trump administration. Her most recent articles included in-depth reporting on topics as disparate as Venezuela and Social Security.
In December, Natanson wrote a first-person account about her experience covering the workforce as the Trump administration created upheaval across the federal government. She detailed how she posted her secure phone number to an online forum for government workers and amassed more than 1,000 sources, with federal workers frequently contacting her to share frustrations and stories from their offices.
Natanson wrote in her declaration Wednesday that she typically receives anywhere from dozens to upward of 100 tips from sources per day on Signal. But since the seizure, the number of tips has fallen to zero.
In its filings, The Post argued that the government’s search violates the First Amendment and is an “unconstitutional prior restraint” because, by seizing Natanson’s devices, it has rendered her incapable of effectively doing her job. The seizure, they said, amounts to blocking her speech before she is able to publish her work.
Prosecutors also served The Post with a subpoena seeking information related to the same government contractor. The subpoena asked The Post to hand over any communications between the contractor and other employees. The deadline to respond to that subpoena has not yet passed.
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