Judge Blocks Feds From Accessing Devices Seized From Washington Post Reporter

A federal magistrate judge has blocked the FBI from accessing electronic devices it seized from a Washington Post reporter’s Virginia home last week in a court-ordered search as part of an investigation into alleged unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter, who signed the warrants granting permission for the search, approved a request Wednesday from the Post and reporter Hannah Natanson to make the materials off limits to investigators while litigation over the highly unusual search plays out.

In a two-page order, Porter said the Post had established “good cause … to maintain the status quo.” He set a Feb. 6 hearing to consider the matter further.

Newly unsealed records related to the investigation reveal that the FBI obtained three search warrants: one for Natanson’s Alexandria home, one for her car and one for Natanson herself. Though several key records remain sealed, those now accessible indicate that the FBI seized several devices from Natanson’s home, including a “Handy Recorder,” two Macbook Pro laptops, a hard drive, an iPhone and a Garmin watch.

The FBI executed the warrant at Natanson’s home on Jan. 14. It’s unclear whether investigators already accessed some or all of her devices prior to Porter’s “standstill” order.

The search has drawn criticism from First Amendment and press freedom advocates because federal law generally requires prosecutors to use subpoenas rather than search warrants to obtain evidence from journalists or news organizations.

In their motion Wednesday seeking return of the data, lawyers for the Post and Natanson called the search “an unconstitutional prior restraint” that is interfering in Natanson’s work and swept up a vast amount of information unrelated to the federal investigation.

“The government has commandeered Natanson’s reporting records and tools, thereby preventing her from contacting her more than 1,100 sources and receiving their tips, and generally impairing her ability to publish the stories she otherwise would have published but for the raid,” the attorneys wrote.

The newly released court records do not indicate whether Porter was informed that Natanson is a journalist or whether the judge determined that the 1980 law limiting searches of reporters, the Privacy Protection Act, did not apply in this instance.

However, the court documents show that Natanson came under scrutiny in connection with an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor who was arrested and charged earlier this month with violating the Espionage Act by illegally retaining classified information at his home. Perez-Lugones is currently in pretrial detention in Maryland.

Justice Department spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment on Porter’s order. But a DOJ official told POLITICO last week that the government has strong evidence that Perez-Lugones shared government secrets with Natanson.

“At the time of his arrest, Perez-Lugones was actively communicating with the reporter on his mobile device, and in this chat, there was classified information,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive ongoing investigation.

The veteran national security prosecutor who obtained the warrants for Natanson’s devices, Gordon Kromberg, previously oversaw the criminal case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and several investigations into fundraising and other support for terrorism groups in northern Virginia.