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WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents searched a Washington Put up reporter’s home on Wednesday as piece of a leak investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of taking home classified recordsdata, the Justice Department stated.

Hannah Natanson, who has been preserving President Donald Trump’s transformation of the federal govt, had a phone, two laptops and a Garmin look seized within the quest of her Virginia home, the Put up reported. Natanson has reported broadly on the federal personnel and lately printed a fragment describing how she received a entire bunch of most up-to-the-minute sources — leading one colleague to name her “the federal govt whisperer.”

While classified paperwork investigations aren’t fresh, the quest of a reporter’s home marks an escalation within the government’s efforts to crack down on leaks. The Put up became once told that Natanson and the newspaper are no longer targets of the probe, govt editor Matt Murray stated in an email to colleagues.

“Nonetheless, this unheard of, aggressive action is deeply referring to and raises profound questions and distress around the constitutional protections for our work,” Murray wrote. “The Washington Put up has a lengthy historical past of zealous make stronger for strong press freedoms. All the institution stands by these freedoms and our work.”

Licensed legitimate Total Pam Bondi stated that the quest became once done on the question of the Defense Department and that the journalist became once “acquiring and reporting classified and illegally leaked recordsdata from a Pentagon contractor.”

“Leaking classified recordsdata locations The United States’s nationwide security and the protection of our defense power heroes in serious jeopardy,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a post on X. “President Trump has zero tolerance for it and could proceed to aggressively crack down on these unlawful acts keen forward.”

The warrant says the quest became once associated to an investigation into a system engineer and recordsdata expertise specialist for a govt contractor in Maryland who authorities impart took home classified materials, the Put up reported. The employee, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, became once charged earlier this month with unlawful retention of nationwide defense recordsdata, in keeping with court papers. He has no longer been charged with sharing classified recordsdata, and he has no longer been accused in court papers with leaking.

Perez-Lugones, who held a high secret security clearance, is accused of printing classified and light reports at work. In a search of his Maryland home and automobile this month, authorities discovered paperwork marked “SECRET,” including one in a lunchbox, in keeping with court papers.

An FBI spokesperson declined to touch upon Wednesday. The Washington Put up stated Wednesday that it became once monitoring and reviewing the distress. An email looking out out for comment became once despatched to lawyers for Perez-Lugones, who’s anticipated to look in court on Thursday for a detention listening to.

First Amendment groups expressed fear on the quest, asserting it may per chance most likely kick back investigative journalism that holds govt officers to fable.

“Physical searches of newshounds’ gadgets, homes, and property are some of basically the most invasive investigative steps regulations enforcement can take,” Newshounds Committee for Freedom of the Press president Bruce Brown stated. “While we received’t know the government’s arguments about overcoming these very steep hurdles till the affidavit is made public, here’s a colossal escalation within the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the clicking.”

The Justice Department over the years has developed, and revised, interior policies governing how this can answer to news media leaks.

In April, Bondi rescinded a policy from President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration that safe journalists from having their phone recordsdata secretly seized all over leak investigations — a observe lengthy decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.

The moves again gave prosecutors the authority to exercise subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for presidency officers who ranking “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists. A memo she issued stated participants of the clicking are “presumptively entitled to come have confidence about of such investigative actions,” and subpoenas are to be “narrowly drawn.” Warrants must additionally consist of “protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into doubtlessly safe materials or newsgathering actions,” the memo states.

The aggressive posture with regards to The Washington Put up stands unlike the Justice Department’s intention to the disclosure of light defense power recordsdata by contrivance of a Signal chat last spring interesting senior Trump administration officers. A reporter became once mistakenly added to that chat. Bondi indicated publicly on the time that she became once disinclined to launch an investigation, asserting she became once confident that the episode had been a mistake.

Bondi additionally repeated Trump administration talking functions that the extremely light recordsdata within the chat became once no longer classified, though fresh and outmoded U.S. officers have stated the posting of the launch times of plane and the times that bombs could be released earlier than these pilots were even within the air would have been classified.

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Associated Press reporter David Bauder in Fresh York Metropolis contributed.