A federal judge rejected a Justice Department request to search devices seized from a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into alleged mishandling of classified information by a government contractor, ruling that the court would carry out the review.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents executed a search warrant at the Virginia home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation of Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a systems engineer and information-technology specialist for a government contractor in Maryland with a top-secret security clearance. He was charged with unlawful retention of national-defense information.
The search of a journalist’s home is a rare action that underscored the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to identifying and prosecuting people thought to have leaked government secrets. Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray said in January that the news organization was told that it and the reporter weren’t targets in the investigation.
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