The Trump administration can’t seem to stop tangling with journalists. The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson last week and seized two of her laptops, her phone, and a smartwatch. While the search was conducted as part of an investigation into a federal contractor charged with mishandling classified material and not the reporter herself, the raid has rattled the fourth estate.
The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, wrote in a memo to his newsroom last week that the raid was “deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work.” Activist Sarah Leah Whitson compared the raid to the Saudi operation in 2018 to lure and murder Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement that warned: “Without assurances that journalists can protect their reporting materials, accountability journalism will suffer a major setback, eroding yet another mechanism for government accountability.”
These concerns are understandable in light of the administration’s open hostility to the press. President Donald Trump began his 2016 presidential campaign by railing against the journalists who covered his rallies. In November, he insulted a reporter at a press gaggle on Air Force One, saying, “Quiet, Piggy.” And his staff has followed his cue. The Pentagon this fall required its press corps to sign a pledge that, among other things, they would not publish or solicit information not authorized by the Department of Defense. Nearly all of the Pentagon press corps refused and lost official access to the building.
