OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:01 PM – Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Federal agents executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally taking home classified documents, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
On Wednesday, Bondi revealed on X that the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson was searched as part of a leak investigation. Natanson had been covering President Donald Trump’s transformation of the federal government.
“This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” she wrote.
Natanson was at her home in Virginia when the search was conducted on her devices. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized her phone, a Garmin watch and two laptops, one being a Washington Post-issued laptop.
Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the investigation, as the warrant said law enforcement was looking into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator and an IT specialist for a government subcontractor in Maryland. He had top-secret security clearance and allegedly took home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and basement, an FBI affidavit clarified.
Additionally, an affidavit from an FBI special agent accompanying the complaint alleged that Perez-Lugones accessed databases “maintained by several Government agencies” to “view a classified intelligence report related to a foreign country.”
Natanson’s connection likely lies in her coverage of what the Washington Post called its “most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump administration.” She amassed more than 1,000 federal sources for a first-person essay by posting her secure phone number on an online forum for government workers.
“While it is not unusual for FBI agents to conduct leak investigations of reporters who publish sensitive government information, it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home,” the outlet said.
Authorities charged Perez-Lugones after a search of his home and vehicle in Laurel, Maryland, where they said they found national defense documents.
He is currently in federal custody and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison upon conviction for the charge of “unlawful retention of national defense information.”
“The leaker is currently behind bars. I am proud to work alongside Secretary Hegseth on this effort,” Bondi revealed. “The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country.”
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