In the matter of the search of the real property and premises of Hannah Natanson

Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

Date Filed: Jan. 21, 2026

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. 

According to a court filing, FBI agents seized six electronic devices from Natanson’s home, including her phone, work computer, personal laptop, and smart watch. The agents reportedly told Natanson that she is not the target of the investigation. 

This search is the first time the U.S. Justice Department has raided a journalist’s home in connection with a national security leak investigation. The Justice Department’s seizure of Natanson’s electronic devices means it has access to a trove of material beyond her communications with the alleged leaker at the center of the underlying criminal case. 

Natanson, who covers the federal workforce, has been involved in high-profile coverage of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government, which means her devices would potentially contain a lot of communications with government sources. 

The Post filed a motion on Jan. 21, 2026, asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to order the government to return the property seized from Natanson’s home or, at the very least, return the seized materials that are beyond the scope of the search warrant. The court quickly issued an order blocking the government from searching the devices until the litigation is settled.

Our Position: Hours after the district court’s ruling, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Natanson and The Post urging the court to order the government to return the reporter’s electronic devices and delete any of the information it seized.

• Any warrant for a journalist’s records — to say nothing of a raid of a private home — poses an exceptional risk to press freedom and requires the closest judicial scrutiny.

• These sweeping seizures of a journalist’s records violate the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and the Privacy Protection Act.

Quote: “This is the first time in U.S. history that the government has searched a reporter’s home in a national security media leak investigation, seizing potentially a vast amount of confidential data and information,” Reporters Committee President Bruce D. Brown said in a statement. “The move imperils public interest reporting and will have ramifications far beyond this specific case. It is critical that the court address the profound threat to the First Amendment posed by the raid.”

Related: The same day FBI agents raided Natanson’s home, Reporters Committee attorneys filed an application to unseal all of the court records related to the search warrant, arguing that the government “cannot justify wholesale secrecy here, where the public’s ability to understand a search with serious consequences for a free press is at stake, and where any basis for secrecy is undercut by the information that is already public.” A judge has not yet ruled on that request.