Key Points
- A federal judge blocked investigators from searching devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hanna Natanson’s home.
- The order pauses review of the materials while courts weigh challenges to the search warrant’s legality.
- The case has renewed debate over federal protections for journalists and limits on law enforcement searches.
A federal judge has restrained law enforcement officials from searching the devices of a Washington Post reporter that were seized from her home earlier this month.
In an order issued on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter said the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were not allowed to sift through the contents of two laptops, a phone and a portable hard drive that were confiscated during a search warrant executed on the residence of Washington Post reporter Hanna Natanson last week.
Under long-standing policy, the U.S. Department of Justice prohibits agents and prosecutors from issuing subpoenas or search warrants against accredited journalists in connection with their work, with some exceptions. That policy was strengthened after Justice Department officials under the Obama and Biden administration targeted reporters at the Associated Press, the New York Times and Fox News when investigating leaks involving classified materials.
The Trump administrations has sought to remove protections for reporters who report on secret information. Some states have codified protections for journalists through so-called “shield laws,” though similar protections do not exist in federal law, and efforts to codify those protections on a national level have failed in recent years.
The debate around federal shield laws reignited after agents searched Natanson’s home on January 14, during which they seized a number of computer-related hardware, including a Garmin-brand smartwatch.
Natanson regularly reports on political matters for the Washington Post, with a specific focus on how the Trump administration is “reshaping the federal government,” according to a biography published online. She worked with a team of Washington Post reporters on the newspaper’s coverage of the siege at the U.S. Capitol building in January 2021, which earned the publication a Pulitzer Prize. Her prior beat was education.
Federal law enforcement officials told the Washington Post that Natanson is not the subject of a criminal investigation and not suspected of any legal wrongdoing, the newspaper said last week. Under previous administrations, that would be enough to disqualify any effort by federal prosecutors or law enforcement to issue a search warrant against a journalist, let alone interview them about constitutionally-protected news gathering and reporting.
This week, the Washington Post moved to unseal the search warrant filed against Natanson and asked a court to demand the return of Natanson’s computers, some of which were issued by the newspaper for her work.
Prosecutors said the warrant was legally executed and part of an ongoing criminal investigation against a federal contractor suspected of leaking sensitive information.
In his brief on Wednesday, Porter said the newspaper had “demonstrated good cause” that the government should not be allowed to search Natanson’s devices until the litigation over the search warrant is resolved, though he didn’t order agents to return them.
A hearing on the broader issues raised by the Washington Post is scheduled for next month.
