Trump DOJ seeks control over search of Washington Post reporter's devices
Source: MS NOW News
Mar. 11, 2026, 3:09 PM EDT
The Justice Department escalated its bid to search a Washington Post reporter’s electronic devices pursuant to a warrant, seeking to overturn a magistrate judge’s order that the court — not the government — lead the initial review. In a court filing Tuesday, the DOJ said it wants a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to vacate Magistrate Judge William Porter’s order, which he said he reached in refusing to leave “the government’s fox in charge of the Washington Post’s henhouse.”
The DOJ obtained a search warrant for reporter Hannah Natanson’s devices as part of an investigation into Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, who was charged with unlawfully retaining national defense information. The government said he gave Natanson top secret and other classified information that later appeared in her published articles.
Perez-Lugones was charged in Maryland. The litigation over Natanson’s devices is proceeding in Virginia because the FBI seized them from her home there during a January search. It took two laptops, a mobile phone, a portable drive, a recording device and an exercise watch. In a sworn declaration later that month, Natanson said the seizure of all her devices “has eliminated my ability to collect information and publish news stories.”
In his Feb. 24 ruling, which the DOJ is challenging, Porter said the case presented difficult legal issues, sitting at “the intersection of the government’s compelling interest in prosecuting the unlawful disclosure of classified national security information and a working journalist’s First Amendment rights.”
Read more: https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-doj-hannah-natanson-appeal
Link to FILING (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.588772/gov.uscourts.vaed.588772.74.0.pdf
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143598521
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143602601
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143602731
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143619604
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143621720