Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press v. Office of the Attorney General

Case Number: 1:26-cv-01502-TSC

Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Client: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Background: On Jan. 14, 2026, the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a government contractor charged with illegally retaining national defense materials. In the search, federal agents seized her electronic devices, including her phone and two laptops. 

The unprecedented move sparked immediate alarm about the press freedom implications of such an extreme step. In February, a federal magistrate judge blocked the U.S. Justice Department from reviewing the electronic devices seized in the raid, concluding that the court would conduct its own review of the material. 

In the decision, the magistrate judge wrote that before he signed off on the search warrant that authorized the raid, he rejected two previous warrant applications partly out of concern for “the government’s apparent attempt to collect information about Ms. Natanson’s confidential sources.” The judge added that he had discussions with lawyers “from the highest levels of the DOJ” over two days about proposed search warrants seeking information that the government believed was in Natanson’s possession. 

In March 2026, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the DOJ’s Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and the National Security Division seeking records related the DOJ’s efforts to obtain the search warrant — including discussions of the federal law that generally prohibits government raids targeting journalists or newsrooms, with few exceptions.

After the agencies failed to make determinations or release any responsive records, the Reporters Committee filed this lawsuit to obtain the records, alleging that the agencies violated FOIA by failing to comply with statutory deadlines and wrongfully withholding agency records.

Related: The same day FBI agents raided Natanson’s home, the Reporters Committee sought to unseal the court records related to the search warrant so that the public could see the representations the government made to the court. And the Reporters Committee has filed two friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Natanson and The Post’s efforts to block the government from obtaining from the seized devices a vast amount of newsgathering materials that are unrelated to the leak investigation. 

Filings:

2026-04-30: Complaint