US Judge Blocks Justice Department from Searching Washington Post Reporter’s Devices

(MENAFN) A US federal judge has barred the Justice Department from examining electronic devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, ordering the court itself to review the materials in connection with a national security investigation.

Magistrate Judge William Porter ruled Tuesday that allowing an unrestricted search could infringe on Natanson’s First Amendment rights. “The court will conduct the review itself,” Porter wrote.

The FBI raided Natanson’s home on January 14 as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of improperly retaining classified information. Seized items included her phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive, and a Garmin watch.

Natanson’s reporting highlighted that federal employees laid off during the Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiatives—led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—had compiled nearly 1,200 confidential sources across 120 government agencies.

After the raid, the Post requested the devices’ return, prompting Porter to instruct the government not to search them before a court hearing. In his ruling, the judge criticized the Justice Department for not addressing the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, which safeguards journalists’ work-related materials from government searches, stating that this omission “seriously undermined the court’s confidence in the government’s disclosures in this proceeding.”

Porter acknowledged that potential classified content among the seized items adds complexity but emphasized that “an appropriate search process must account for the need to identify and protect classified information before any materials are returned. But that does not mean that in all cases the government gets to conduct that search.”

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