The FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter Wednesday.
The search was as part of an investigation into a government contractor who is accused of illegally retaining classified materials, The Washington Post reported.
The reporter, Hannah Natanson, was at her home in Virginia when the FBI arrived, the newspaper reported.
FBI agents searched her home and devices. They seized her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch. One of the laptops was a Washington Post-issued laptop.
Investigators told Natanson she is not the focus of the probe. According to the warrant, law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones.
Perez-Lugones is a system administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance. He has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, per an FBI affidavit.
“This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X Wednesday morning.
“The leaker is currently behind bars. I am proud to work alongside Secretary Hegseth on this effort. 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,” she added.
Perez-Lugones, a Miami-born U.S. citizen, made his first court appearance in the case Friday, the records state.
According to the Post, Natanson covers the federal workforce. The criminal complaint against Perez-Lugones does not mention any ties to journalists.
