News Beat
FBI searches home of Washington Post reporter covering Trump’s federal firings in classified documents probe
The FBI has searched the home of a Washington Post reporter who was covering the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal employees.
The search was part of an investigation into the possible sharing of classified documents, the newspaper reported.
Agents took the rare step Wednesday of searching the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson, seizing her phone, a Garmin watch, one personal laptop and anotherWashington Post-issued computer.
Investigators told Natanson that she is not the target of the probe, according to The Post.
In a statement posted Wednesday on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department and FBI executed a search warrant at the request of the Department of Defense “at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
“The leaker is currently behind bars,” Bondi said. “The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country.”
The newspaper’s reporting of the incident characterized the search of its reporter’s home as “highly unusual and aggressive.”
The warrant to search Natanson’s home, who was present at the time, said that law enforcement was probing a system administrator based in Maryland with top security clearance.
Aurelio Perez-Lugones was named in an FBI affidavit and has been accused of accessing and taking classified intelligence reports home with him.
Natanson has spent the past year covering the Trump administration’s reshaping of the government and in December 2025, wrote a first-person account of how she has spoken with federal employees to learn of their experiences.
It was titled: “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal.”
In the early months of President Donald Trump’s second administration, he wasted no time in carrying out thousands of mass layoffs via the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by billionaire Elon Musk.
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The move brought Natanson 1,169 new sources, according to her own reporting, which detailed how she was “nearly broken” by the workload.
“I would gain a new beat, a new editor and 1,169 contacts on Signal, all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories,” Natanson wrote.
In one of the messages she received from a Defense Department staffer, they told her: “I understand the risks. But getting the truth and facts out is so much more important.”
“I’d never thought I’d be leaking info like this,” another Justice Department worker told Natanson, according to her account.
Perez-Lugones is currently detained and is due to appear in a federal Baltimore court Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University blasted the search in a statement and called for “intense scrutiny” of the action.
“These kinds of searches can deter and impede reporting that is vital to our democracy,” said executive director Jameel Jaffer. “Searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes, and we must ensure that these practices are not normalized here.”
