Last month, Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson penned a first-person piece about her long year as “the federal government whisperer,” receiving tips from hundreds of federal workers impacted by President Donald Trump’s transformation of the government.
On Wednesday morning, FBI agents arrived at Natanson’s home and conducted a search, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
The search immediately set off alarms among press freedom advocates.
The FBI had no immediate comment. A Post spokesperson said the publication is monitoring the situation. The New York Times was the first to report on the search.
Natanson was told that she is not a target of the investigation, according to the person familiar with the matter, which suggests that the FBI is pursuing one or more of her sources.
Natanson reviewed the FBI’s search warrant and relayed the information to her employer.
“The warrant said that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit,” The Post reported.
Perez-Lugones was charged last week with illegally retaining classified documents.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
