FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of a leak investigation involving a Pentagon contractor accused of sharing classified information, the Justice Department said.
Hannah Natanson, who has been covering President Donald Trump’s transformation of the federal government, had a phone and a Garmin watch seized in the search of her Virginia home, the Post reported. Natanson has reported extensively on the federal workforce, and recently she published a piece describing how she gained hundreds of new sources — leading one colleague to call her “the federal government whisperer.”
While classified documents investigations aren’t unusual, the search of a reporter’s home marks an escalation in the government’s efforts to crack down on leaks.
“Leaking classified information puts America’s national security and the safety of our military heroes in serious jeopardy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. “President Trump has zero tolerance for it and will continue to aggressively crack down on these illegal acts moving forward.”
An affidavit says the search was related to an investigation into a system administrator in Maryland who authorities allege took home classified reports, the Post reported. The system administrator, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, was charged earlier this month with unlawful retention of national defense information, according to court papers.
