Court Rules Against Justice Dept. Search of Reporter’s Computers

Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Court Rules Against Justice Dept. Search of Reporter’s Computers The judge said the court itself would search the devices, which were seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month. Listen to this article · 3:13 min Learn more Share full article By Erik Wemple Feb. 24, 2026, 9:29 p.m. ET A federal magistrate judge ruled on Tuesday that the court, and not the Justice Department, would search devices that the government seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month, resolving an impasse over how to handle the materials. The judge, William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia, came down against an “unsupervised, wholesale” search expedition conducted by the government. “Allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product — most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources — is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of The Washington Post’s henhouse,” he wrote. The Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained an iPhone, two computers and other devices when it searched the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, who covers the federal government for The Post. The search stemmed from an investigation into a Maryland government contractor, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who has been indicted on charges of transmitting and retaining classified national defense information. One issue in the search is just how much information from Ms. Natanson’s devices is relevant to the prosecution. The government, The Post has argued, has a “legitimate interest in only an infinitesimal fraction of the data it has seized.” The Post, citing the First Amendment and attorney-client privilege, requested that the government refrain from reviewing the material on Ms. Natanson’s devices. A hearing last week considered The Post’s request that all the devices be returned so that the company could sift through the information and provide relevant materials...