On Christmas Eve, The Washington Post’s Hannah Natanson wrote a terrific report in which she described herself as the newspaper’s “federal government whisperer.” It was a worthy title: Natanson positioned herself as the go-to reporter covering federal employees struggling with Donald Trump and his team’s radical efforts to transform the government.
Three weeks later, the FBI showed up at her home. MS NOW reported:
The FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter early Wednesday in connection with a criminal case involving a leak of classified information.
Hannah Natanson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, was at her Virginia home when FBI agents executed a search warrant and seized her cellphone, two laptops and a Garmin watch, the Post said.
Officials confirmed that Natanson was not part of a criminal investigation and that she’s not facing any charges. Rather, the administration believes she received information from Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a systems engineer in Maryland who allegedly leaked classified information.
Indeed, the White House defended the developments by emphasizing Trump’s “zero tolerance” attitude on failing to protect classified information — a rather hilarious claim in light of the president’s track record of blurting out sensitive secrets and storing classified files in the bathroom of his glorified country club.
Time will tell what may come of the investigation, but the fact that the FBI showed up at a reporter’s home and took her devices is an extraordinary step in itself, and one that is very likely to have a chilling effect on journalists who cover the administration.
Given the nature and breadth of Natanson’s work, it’s easy to imagine the Trump administration could use her electronic devices to identify other former or current federal officials who have contacted her with confidential information the White House would prefer to keep from the public.
The FBI’s search of a reporter’s home is extraordinarily unusual — and was enabled by a decision Attorney General Pam Bondi made shortly after taking the reins at the Justice Department.
In early 2021, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland established a policy that prohibited federal prosecutors from going after reporters’ private information or forcing them to testify about confidential sources.
Even at the time, this wasn’t especially controversial. In fact, there was bipartisan legislation in Congress, called the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act (the PRESS Act), that would have codified Garland’s policy into federal law. In early 2024, House Republicans agreed to bring the bill to the floor, where it passed without objection.
Any one member from the left, right or center could have balked, but no one did. Even in a sharply divided House, this was seen as a consensus issue. Though there was a companion bill in the Senate, which was co-authored by two conservative Republicans and which enjoyed the backing of far-right media figures such as Tucker Carlson, then-candidate Donald Trump told GOP senators to reject the legislation, and it died soon after. A year later, Trump returned to the White House, at which point Bondi decided to turn back the clock, revoked the Biden-era policy, and ended the media protections. Eight months later, we’re seeing the results of that shift, and if recent history is any guide, Natanson won’t be the last journalist to find FBI agents waiting at their door. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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