Who is Hannah Natanson? All you need to know about Washington Post reporter raided FBI over classified documents leak | World News
Natanson is an award-winning journal who has, in the past, covered issues like school shootings and book bans. (Photo: The Washington Post)
FBI agents searched a reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of taking home government secrets, The Washington Post said on Wednesday.
According to The Washington Post, the FBI searched journal Hannah Natanson’s devices and seized a phone and a Garmin watch at her Virginia home.
FILE PHOTO: The newspaper’s banner logo is seen during the grand opening of the Washington Post newsroom in Washington January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Natanson’s report on Trump adminration
Natanson covers the Trump adminration’s transformation of the federal government and recently published a piece describing how she gained hundreds of new sources, leading a colleague to call her “the federal government whisperer.”
In December, she published a viral first-person account titled “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal,” detailing the relentless pace of managing over 1,100 new sources from within the federal workforce.
Who is Hannah Natanson?
Natanson is an award-winning journal who has, in the past, covered issues like school shootings and book bans.Story continues below this ad
In 2022, Natanson was part of the team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the January 6 insurrection.
In 2024, she received the Peabody Award for a podcast series on school gun violence.
Leaked documents investigation
Confirming the news, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was done at the Pentagon’s request as part of a leak investigation.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was done at the Pentagon’s request as part of a leak investigation. (Photo: Reuters)
While classified documents investigations aren’t unusual, the search of a reporter’s home marks an escalation in the government’s efforts to crack down on leaks.Story continues below this ad
An affidavit stated that the search was related to an investigation into a system adminrator in Maryland who authorities allege took home classified reports, the newspaper reported. The system adminrator, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, was charged earlier this month with unlawful retention of national defense information, according to court papers.
Perez-Lugones, who held a top-secret security clearance, is accused of printing classified and sensitive reports at work. In a search of his Maryland home and car this month, authorities found documents marked “SECRET,” including one in a lunchbox, according to court papers.
