The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has raided the home of a Washington Post journalist, in a move the newspaper described as a "highly unusual and aggressive" act by law enforcement.
Agents raided the home of Hannah Nathanson in Virginia as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally withholding classified government materials. The Washington Post is "reviewing and monitoring the situation," a source told Britain's Guardian.
According to a search warrant obtained by the Post, the journalist’s home and electronic devices were searched, and her Garmin watch and cellphone were seized. The warrant says the investigation is related to Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland systems administrator with a top-secret security clearance who is accused of accessing classified intelligence reports and taking them home.
According to the Post, Natanson reports on the federal administration and federal employees, and was part of the newspaper's "most visible and sensitive reporting" during the first year of Donald Trump's second term.
As the newspaper stated in its report, "it is extremely unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search of a journalist's home."
In a first-person op-ed published last month, Natanson described herself as the Washington Post's "federal government whisperer," saying she received calls day and night "from federal employees who wanted to tell me how President Donald Trump was rewriting their workplace rules, firing their colleagues or changing the missions of their agencies."
"It was brutal," was the headline of that article.
Natanson said the work brought her 1.169 new sources – “all current or former federal employees who chose to share their stories with me.” She said she was uncovering information “that people inside government agencies were not allowed to reveal to me,” adding that the intensity of the work was “nearly overwhelming.”
The federal investigation into Perez-Lugones, according to the Post, included documents that were found in his lunch box and in the basement of his home, according to an FBI statement.
The US Department of Justice did not comment on the search of the journalist's apartment.
Bonus video:
