{"id":15065,"date":"2026-02-25T17:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15065"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:03:27","slug":"judge-rejects-government-request-to-search-washington-post-reporters-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15065","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects government request to search Washington Post reporter\u2019s devices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1-16.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15066\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1-16.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1-16-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Washington Post said it applauds the court\u2019s recognition of core First Amendment protections.\u00a9\u00a0Ken Cedeno\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The search of a journalist\u2019s home is a rare action that underscored the Trump administration\u2019s 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\u2019t targets in the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The judge in the Eastern District of Virginia said that given the government\u2019s efforts to investigate leaks, \u201callowing the government\u2019s filter team to search a reporter\u2019s work product\u2014most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources\u2014is the equivalent of leaving the government\u2019s fox in charge of the Washington Post\u2019s henhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court will instead carry out the search to gather the information the government needs to prosecute its criminal case, Judge William Porter wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Post said it applauds \u201cthe court\u2019s recognition of core First Amendment protections and its rejection of the government\u2019s expansionist arguments for searching Hannah Natanson\u2019s devices and work materials in their entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Justice Department didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Post in January filed a motion to return Natanson\u2019s items and denounced the search and seizure, saying it \u201cchills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on protected materials.\u201d The news prompted outrage from press-freedom organizations, including an amicus brief from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FBI said in an affidavit that there was probable cause to believe Natanson\u2019s devices contained classified information, potentially including yet-to-be-published information that could \u201charm national security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1708,2086,1597],"class_list":["post-15065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-judge","tag-post","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Judge rejects government request to search Washington Post reporter\u2019s devices - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15065\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge rejects government request to search Washington Post reporter\u2019s devices - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. 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