The FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, as part of an investigation of a contractor supposedly having classified documents.
WaPo reported that agents searched Natanson’s home and seized her phone, personal laptop, WaPo-issued laptop, and a Garmin watch:
Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the probe. The warrant said that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.Natanson covers the federal workforce and has been a part of The Washington Post’s most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump administration.
WaPo and The New York Times appeared to take shots at the Trump administration, with the latter saying that it’s “exceedingly rare” for federal agents to search the home of a reporter.
But the Times added at the very end:
In typical leak investigations, a reporter is not a target for prosecution but can be viewed as an avenue for obtaining evidence against the person suspected of leaking information.
Duh.
According to Fox News, Perez-Lugones, an American citizen from Miami, lives in Laurel, Maryland.
Perez-Lugones has worked as a government contractor since 2002, with a top-secret security clearance.
The Baltimore Sun reported that the DOJ charged Perez-Lugones last week for illegally retaining classified documents.
The FBI searched Perez-Lugones’s home and vehicle, allegedly finding “documents related to national defense.”
More from the report:
Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator at an undisclosed contracting company in Annapolis Junction near Fort Meade who has a “Top Secret” security clearance, is accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.The contractor did not have a defense attorney listed in court records.The affidavit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, says Perez-Lugones logged into a classified system and took notes on a notepad throughout this week, then took the pages home. It also details the Navy veteran’s use of databases last fall to view and take a screenshot of a classified intelligence report about a foreign country, only identified as “Country 1.”“Perez-Lugones had no need to know and was not authorized to search for, access, view, screenshot or print any of this information,” the affidavit says.
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