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kash patel
'A Serious Violation': FBI Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist for Classified Documents
"This is a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press," said one First Amendment advocate.
Jan 14, 2026
A press freedom group on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of a "disturbing escalation" in its "war on the First Amendment" after the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who has extensively covered President Donald Trump's attempts to gut the federal workforce.
FBI agents reportedly conducted a search early Wednesday morning at the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a federal contractor who is accused of illegally retaining classified documents.
"If true, this would be a serious violation of press freedom," said the Freedom of the Press Foundation in a social media post.
The Post reported that the agents seized Natanson's cellphone, Garmin watch, a personal laptop, and a laptop issued by the newspaper.
The warrant stated that the FBI was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator with top secret security clearance who has been accused of taking classified intelligence reports to his home in Maryland. The documents were found in his lunch box and basement, an FBI affidavit said.
Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney noted that the criminal complaint regarding Perez-Lugones' case does not mention allegations that he gave any classified documents to a reporter.
"The FBI's search and seizure of a journalist's personal and professional devices appears to be a serious violation of press freedom and underscores why we need to enact greater federal protections for both journalists and their sources," said Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders North America. "Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the seizure is linked to an investigation into a federal contractor who is alleged to have leaked classified information. It's worth reiterating, though we shouldn't have to, that journalists have a constitutionally protected right to publish government secrets. We call for the FBI to immediately return Hannah Natanson's devices."
Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told the New York Times that the FBI search at Natanson's home was "intensely concerning" and could chill "legitimate journalistic activity."
“There are important limits on the government’s authority to carry out searches that implicate First Amendment activity,” Jaffer said.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists notes in a guide to reporters' legal rights, the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 established high standards for searches and seizures of journalists' materials that are "reasonably believed to be related to media intended for dissemination to the public—including 'work product materials' (e.g., notes or voice memos containing mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, etc. of the person who prepared such materials) and 'documentary materials' (e.g., video tapes, audio tapes, photographs, and anything else physically documenting an event)."
"These materials generally cannot be searched or seized unless they are reasonably believed to relate to a crime committed by the person possessing the materials," reads the guide. "They may, however, be held for custodial storage incident to an arrest of the journalist possessing the materials, so long as the material is not searched and is returned to the arrestee intact."
Last year, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) ended a Biden-era policy that limited its ability to search or subpoena a reporter's data as part of investigations into leaks.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ "will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people.”
Before becoming FBI director, Kash Patel said in 2023 that should Trump return to the White House, his administration would "come after people in the media" in efforts to target the president's enemies.
The Post reported Wednesday that "while it is not unusual for FBI agents to conduct leak investigations around reporters who publish sensitive government information, it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home."
Natanson has spent much of Trump's second term thus far covering his efforts to fire federal employees, tens of thousands of whom have been dismissed as the president seeks to ensure the entire government workforce is pushing forward his right-wing agenda.
She wrote an essay last month for the Post in which she described being inundated with messages over the past year from more than 1,000 federal employees who wanted to tell her "how President Donald Trump was rewriting their workplace policies, firing their colleagues, or transforming their agency’s missions." She has written about the toll the mass firings have had on workers' mental health.
Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that "physical searches of reporters’ devices, homes, and belongings are some of the most invasive investigative steps law enforcement can take."
"There are specific federal laws and policies at the Department of Justice that are meant to limit searches to the most extreme cases because they endanger confidential sources far beyond just one investigation and impair public interest reporting in general," said Brown. "While we won’t know the government’s arguments about overcoming these very steep hurdles until the affidavit is made public, this is a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press.”
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‘Americans Should Be Enraged’: Reports Expose Unprecedented Corruption at Trump DOJ
"I wouldn’t even call it the Justice Department anymore. It’s become Trump’s personal law firm."
Nov 17, 2025
Dozens of former US Department of Justice attorneys have now gone on record to describe the unprecedented corruption of federal law enforcement taking place during President Donald Trump's second term.
In a lengthy story published on Sunday by the New York Times, the former DOJ attorneys described rampant politicization of prosecutions, directives to dig up evidence on Trump's political foes, and orders to drop investigations into potential terrorist plots and white-collar crimes.
Several attorneys told the paper that the corruption of the DOJ began on Trump's very first day in office when he issued a blanket pardon to everyone who had been convicted of rioting at the US Capitol building on his behalf on January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch effort to prevent the certification of former President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Gregory Rosen, who oversaw the unit at the DOJ that prosecuted January 6 rioters, told the Times that he felt "numb" seeing the pardons of the rioters, but he nonetheless facilitated the pardons because he understood they were within the president's constitutional powers.
Mike Romano, a prosecutor who worked on January 6 cases, said that he had to resign as soon as he saw the broad scope of the pardons, which included rioters who were guilty of assaulting police officers.
"It’s incredibly demoralizing to see something you worked on for four years wiped away by a lie—I mean the idea that prosecution of the rioters was a grave national injustice," he said. "We had strong evidence against every person we prosecuted."
The mass pardon of the Capitol rioters was only the beginning, as prosecutors said that this politicization soon swept over the entire department.
In early March, for instance, Trump signed an executive order targeting law firms that had in the past represented prominent Democrats. Among other things, the order demanded federal agencies cancel government contracts with the firms and strip the firms' employees of their security clearances.
The orders also accused some of the firms in engaging in supposed racial discrimination for maintaining policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Dena Robinson, a former attorney at the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, told the Times that the DEI investigation into law firm Perkins Coie was a particularly extreme example of the department's politicization under Trump.
"The idea of the investigation was that Perkins Coie supposedly engaged in illegal discrimination against white men," she explained. "But Perkins Coie is an extremely white firm—only 3% of the partners are Black. When my colleague pointed that out, the leadership didn’t care. They’d already reached their conclusion."
Robinson said that this attitude was emblematic of how Trump appointees conducted investigations: They begin with desired conclusions and systematically ignore evidence that undermines them.
"I wouldn’t even call it the Justice Department anymore," she said. "It’s become Trump’s personal law firm. I think Americans should be enraged."
Another aspect of the DOJ under Trump that has drawn scrutiny has been his use of pardons for political allies, including his decision last month to pardon Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023, and who had helped boost the value of the Trump family's own cryptocurrency venture.
A new investigation from ProPublica found that Trump's use of the pardon hasn't just been relegated to prosecutions that took place during Democratic administrations.
The ProPublica report found Trump had wiped out convictions in "at least a dozen criminal cases that originated during his first term," many of which involved politicians convicted of taking bribes or engaging in kickback schemes.
Frank O. Bowman III, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Missouri, told Pro Publica that the Trump pardons taken together are part of what he described as "the systematic destruction of the Justice Department as an objective agency that seeks to uphold the law and fight crime."
In addition to this, Joseph Tirrell, former director of the Departmental Ethics Office, told the Times that the Trump DOJ has been hacking away at rules that bar law-enforcement officials from accepting gifts.
In one instance, Tirrell said he tried to intervene to stop DOJ employees from accepting cigars given by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor and a soccer ball from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
"I felt like I really had to go to the mattress to convince the AG’s office: You can pay for the item or you can return the item or you can throw the item away," he said. "There’s no other way to do this."
Shortly after this, Tirrell said he got a call from the FBI general counsel inquiring "about changing exceptions to the gift rules because his boss, [FBI Director] Kash Patel, felt like he should be able to accept more expensive gifts."
Tirrell said that he then reminded the counsel that "his client was not Mr. Patel, but the United States."
Patel in recent weeks has come under scrutiny for some of the perks he's taken during his time as FBI director, including using the FBI's private jet to fly to a wrestling event where his girlfriend, country music singer Alexis Wilkins, was performing the national anthem.
MS NOW reported on Monday that Patel has also given Wilkins "a security detail made up of elite FBI agents usually assigned to a SWAT team in the FBI field office in Nashville," an unprecedented arrangement for the girlfriend of the FBI director.
Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI agent and MS NOW law enforcement contributor, said that there is "no legitimate justification" for granting Wilkins this level of security.
"This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources," he said. "She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city."
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Majority of Americans Agree Trump Is Weaponizing DOJ to Target Political Enemies
"The American people see exactly what's happening: Trump has corrupted the Department of Justice, turning it into his personal revenge machine," said the Not Above the Law coalition's co-chairs.
Oct 24, 2025
As President Donald Trump's ex-adviser John Bolton, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James fight the various charges against them, polling published Thursday shows a majority of American adults think the Republican leader is using US law enforcement "to go after his enemies."
Reuters/Ipsos asked 4,385 adults on October 15-20 whether Trump was abusing federal law enforcement in this way. Fifty-five percent of all respondents said yes, including 85% of Democrats, 29% of Republicans, and 55% of adults who identified as "other." Just 26% of all respondents said no. The other 19% said they didn't know or skipped the question.
The Not Above the Law coalition's co-chairs—Praveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Brett Edkins of Stand Up America—have forcefully spoken out against Trump's abuse of the US Department of Justice (DOJ). They responded to the survey results in a statement.
"The American people see exactly what's happening: Trump has corrupted the Department of Justice, turning it into his personal revenge machine," they said. "When 55% of Americans—including 3 in 10 Republicans—recognize that the president is abusing law enforcement to prosecute his enemies, it's clear this isn't a partisan issue anymore. It's a threat to the rule of law that transcends party lines."
"The pattern is undeniable: James Comey, Letitia James, John Bolton—all Trump critics charged after he publicly demanded their prosecution. DOJ has been co-opted to serve the president, not the public," the co-chairs continued.
Trump-appointed US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who leads the DOJ, and FBI Director Kash Patel, whose bureau is in the department, have both been accused of abusing their positions and politicizing their agencies for the president.
More than half of Americans, including about three in 10 Republicans, believe President Donald Trump is using federal law enforcement to go after his enemies, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.www.reuters.com/world/us/maj...
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— Brad Heath (@bradheath.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Comey pleaded not guilty earlier this month. His legal team is seeking the dismissal of charges stemming from his congressional testimony, arguing that the case is politically motivated and that Trump "defectively appointed" Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer, as interim US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
James—who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial crimes—pleaded not guilty to mortgage fraud charges Friday morning, a day after her attorneys told the same court that she is also seeking to have her case dismissed and challenging "the unlawful appointment" of Halligan.
After James' Friday arraignment, Stand Up America executive director Christina Harvey said: "Let's be clear: The Department of Justice is targeting Attorney General James because she dared to hold Trump accountable and won. Meanwhile, the Department turns a blind eye as Trump and his cronies cash in on the presidency, even when they're caught red-handed taking $50,000 in exchange for promised government contracts."
"Trump is acting like a wannabe dictator—trying to jail his political enemies, defying the courts, and deploying the military against his own people. That’s not leadership, it's tyranny," Harvey stressed. "This isn't just about one case or one prosecutor. The weaponization of the justice system is a threat to every American. If Trump is allowed to abuse the DOJ to punish his critics, then no one is safe."
Halligan is not handling Bolton's Espionage Act case in Maryland, which began under the Biden administration. While he has also pleaded not guilty, experts have pointed out that, as University of Alabama law professor and former US attorney Joyce Vance put it, "instead of the factually deficient indictments we're seen in the other cases, this is the sort of detailed indictment we are used to seeing in a serious matter."
Regardless of how those cases play out, the coalition co-chairs said that "this poll confirms what we've been warning about: Trump's abuse of power is eroding faith in federal institutions as neutral enforcers of the law and deepening the divisions tearing our country apart. Trump's actions threaten the freedom and safety of all Americans."
The poll also found that Americans are increasingly concerned about "US political division and conflict"—43%, up from 39% two years ago. Additionally, 61% of respondents believe ongoing redistricting efforts aimed at next year's midterm elections are bad for democracy, and the same percentage said it is no longer possible to draw political maps fairly.
In addition to the DOJ prosecuting Trump's political enemies and Republican state lawmakers gerrymandering in the middle of the decade to appease him, the president has designated antifa—an anti-fascist movement with no central organizational structure or leaders—as a domestic terrorist group and, relatedly, issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7.
While dozens of congressional Democrats warned last week that "the sweeping language and broad authority in these directives pose serious constitutional, statutory, and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest, or ideological speech," Congressman Lance Gooden (R-Texas) urged the DOJ to investigate the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) for "close ties with left-wing extremists and domestic terrorist organizations like antifa."
Responding on Thursday, the group said that "we all know that this is not the first time the NLG has faced political attacks from the US government. Since our founding in 1937, NLG members have been at the frontlines of defending those who challenge fascism and have been the target of state repression. This is a history we are proud of... The NLG will continue to speak out in support of activists and movements most targeted by state repression."
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