FBI agents on Wednesday searched the Virginia home of a Washington Post reporter as part of a broader investigation into a government contractor accused of taking home state secrets.
Federal authorities seized a phone, personal laptop, work laptop and Garmin watch belonging to Post reporter Hannah Natanson during the operation in Alexandria. She covers the Trump administration’s changes to the federal government for the newspaper.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Pentagon requested the search based on Ms. Natanson “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
The alleged leaker, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, faces charges of unlawful retention of national defense information. Ms. Bondi said he is behind bars.
“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 attorney general said on social media.
Federal charging documents said Mr. Perez-Lugones printed and took home classified reports from his government job as a system administrator in Maryland.
The filing said agents found documents marked “SECRET” during a search of the defendant’s home and car this month, with one of those files being kept in a lunchbox.
Last year, Ms. Bondi authorized prosecutors to go after government officials who leak sensitive material to journalists.
It was a reversal from a Biden administration policy in which media members were not subject to having their phone records secretly seized during investigations into classified document leaks.
