FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

from the Guardian (H/T T)

The FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter early on Wednesday in what the newspaper called a “highly unusual and aggressive” move by law enforcement, and press freedom groups condemned as a “tremendous intrusion” by the Trump administration.

Agents descended on the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.

An email sent on Wednesday afternoon to Post staff from the executive editor, Matt Murray, obtained by the Guardian, said agents turned up “unannounced”, searched her home and seized electronic devices.

“This extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,” the email said. 

“The Washington Post has a long history of zealous support for robust press freedoms. The entire institution stands by those freedoms and our work.”

“It’s a clear and appalling sign that this administration will set no limits on its acts of aggression against an independent press,” Marty Baron, the Post’s former executive editor, told the Guardian.

Murray said neither the newspaper nor Natanson were told they were the target of a justice department investigation.

Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said in a post on X that the raid was conducted by the justice department and FBI at the request of the Pentagon.

The warrant, she said, was executed “at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. The leaker is currently behind bars.”...

...  “Searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes, and we must ensure that these practices are not normalized here.”

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said it was “an alarming escalation in the Trump administration’s multipronged war on press freedom” and called the warrant “outrageous”.

“The administration may now be in possession of volumes of journalist communications having nothing to do with any pending investigation and, if investigators are able to access them, we have zero faith that they will respect journalist-source confidentiality,” he said.

Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, said: “A government action this rare and aggressive signals a growing assault on independent reporting and undermines the First Amendment...

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