The Washington Post is demanding the immediate return of computers, phones and other devices seized by federal agents during a search of a reporter’s home.
The government’s seizure — in connection with an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified materials — “violates the Constitution’s protections for free speech and a free press and should not be allowed to stand,” lawyers for the newspaper wrote in court documents Wednesday.
The seizure — which appears to be the first federal raid of a journalist’s home in connection with a national security investigation — not only flouts First Amendment protections and federal safeguards for journalists but also “chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on protected materials,” according to the Post’s attorneys.
A federal judge should order the immediate return of all the seized materials, and “anything less would license future newsroom raids and normalize censorship by search warrant,” they wrote. Hours later, the judge presiding over the case blocked the Department of Justice from reviewing the materials and set a hearing date.
FBI agents executed a search warrant January 14 at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, an award-winning journalist who has emerged as the newspaper’s “federal government whisperer” collecting thousands of tips and stories from federal workers caught up in President Donald Trump’s radical reshaping of government.
The filing is the newspaper’s first response to the seizure in court.
Attorneys for the newspaper repeatedly conferred with federal officials about the seized materials, and the government agreed that it would not begin a “substantive review” of the data until the parties met on January 20.
But after that meeting, the government rejected a proposal to return Natanson’s materials, according to lawyers for the Post.
Agents had seized a “massive volume” of data containing years of information about past and current sources and other unpublished information, including material Natanson was actively using for her current reporting — and “almost none” of it had anything to do with the “single government contractor” at the center of the investigation, lawyers wrote.
“The government seized this proverbial haystack in an attempt to locate a needle,” they said.
That “wholesale seizure” suppresses the newspaper’s reporting as well as “Natanson’s current and future journalism,” unable to reach hundreds of sources “who overwhelmingly and self-evidently have nothing to do with the warrant,” lawyers added.
“Nor are Natanson’s confidential sources likely to work with her again, if the government is permitted to rummage through her files unchecked,” they wrote.
The FBI declined to comment to The Independent.
In a declaration attached to the motion, Natanson detailed how the seizure has upended her work and potentially exposed personal information not connected to her reporting, including her “medical information, financial information, and even information about my wedding planning.”
Officers seized an iPhone, two MacBook computers, a recorder, an external hard drive and a smartwatch, according to court filings.
“I need my devices back to do my job,” she wrote. “I also need my devices back to help my colleagues do their jobs. An enormous part of my role in the newsroom was to develop tips for news stories that I would then pass off to colleagues or use to partner with them on future reporting.”
The longer her devices are in the government’s possession, the greater the chance that her sources will be reluctant to speak with her in the future, she said.
“If my sources become aware that the government has access to, or is reviewing, my sources information, the harm to my newsgathering efforts will be even greater,” she wrote.
The warrant executed by federal agents notes that the search was conducted as part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who was allegedly messaging Natanson before he was arrested earlier this month.
Perez-Lugones has been charged with retaining classified materials but has not been accused in court of illegally leaking materials to reporters.
While investigators told Natanson she was not a focus of the probe, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel accused Natanson of reporting on “illegally leaked information” and placing “warfighters” in danger.
But the contractor is not accused of leaking materials, only withholding them, and he was arrested a week before Natanson’s home was searched.
Natanson’s home was “looked into, rightfully so,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.
“Legal action will be taken against anyone, whether it’s a member of the press or whether it’s an employee for a federal agency, who breaks the law,” she said. “If you break the law, and you endanger our men and women in uniform, you’re going to be held accountable.”
Press freedom groups and First Amendment advocates were outraged by the news of the seizure, warning that newsroom searches by law enforcement “are hallmarks of illiberal regimes,” according to the Knight First Amendment Institute.
A coalition of 31 civil liberties groups said the government’s “invasion” into a reporter’s home “is exactly the kind of scenario our First Amendment was conceived to protect against.”
The seizure also follows Trump’s years-long war with the press, including massive lawsuits against media outlets and repeatedly retaliating against and insulting reporters who push back against the administration’s official statements and agenda.
Trump has called on the Justice Department to weaken press protections and supported efforts to block publicly funded media from getting a single public dollar.
“Hannah Natanson’s reporting focused on exposing what is happening inside our federal government — a topic of immense public interest,” the civil rights groups said in a statement last week.
“Our First Amendment protects freedom of the press — including journalistic publication of leaked government secrets — as well as freedom for the public to access such information,” they said.
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