A federal judge in Virginia is convening a hearing Friday afternoon to determine whether federal investigators can retain and search electronic devices seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month.
The hearing marks the first time that prosecutors and attorneys for The Post have met in court since the unprecedented search of reporter Hannah Natanson’s home.
Federal agents executed a search warrant on Jan. 14 at Natanson’s home in Virginia, seizing a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch. Law enforcement officials said the search was part of an investigation into a government contractor who is accused of unlawfully obtaining and sharing classified materials.
It is exceptionally rare for law enforcement officials to search reporters’ homes. The law allows such searches under some circumstances, but federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it more difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources.
The Post and Natanson’s attorneys have decried the search as one that “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists.” They have demanded that the government return the devices so Natanson can continue reporting and said that “almost none” of the materials on the devices are relevant to the case against the contractor.
In turn, the government has said that it needs to search the devices to build its case against the contractor, who was indicted in Maryland last month on one count of retaining and five counts of sharing sensitive national security information. Prosecutors said that journalists are not exempt from such searches and that the government has probable cause to believe the devices “contain its own highly classified information.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter last month temporarily barred the government from examining the electronic devices until he could more thoroughly review the arguments of both sides and rule on the matter.
The warrant that federal agents obtained for the search said it was executed as part of an investigation into the contractor, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a systems administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance. The Justice Department has said that Perez-Lugones had been messaging Natanson shortly before his arrest.
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. She contributed reporting to a number of recent articles around the United States’ capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
In December, Natanson wrote a first-person account about her experience covering the federal 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 accounts from their offices.
Natanson wrote in a declaration to the court last month that she typically receives anywhere from dozens to upward of 100 tips from sources per day on Signal. Since the seizure, the number of tips has fallen to zero.
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.
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