DOJ failed to cite 1980 press‑protection law in warrant for Washington Post reporter

The Justice Department did not tell a magistrate judge about a 1980 law that generally bars searches for journalists’ materials when it sought a warrant to search Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home on Jan. 14, an unsealed court filing shows. Gabe Rottman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which asked the judge to unseal the materials, called the omission significant, saying that “by not alerting the judge to the existence of a federal law that is supposed to limit searches for reporting materials, it may have greased the skids” for approval of the warrant.

The 1980 statute, the Privacy Protection Act, makes it unlawful for investigators to search for or seize journalistic work product and documentary materials except in narrow circumstances, and it says the exception cannot rest on mere possession of materials unless they are child sexual abuse imagery or national security secrets covered by the Espionage Act.

The unsealed affidavit in the Natanson case discusses a Pentagon contractor, Aurelio Perez‑Lugones, whom prosecutors say violated the Espionage Act by leaking classified information, and says his phone showed he had sent information to Ms. Natanson and lists Post articles prosecutors believe relied on documents from him.

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