A judge on Tuesday denied the Justice Department’s request to search a Washington Post reporter’s electronics for sensitive documents as part of its investigation into national security leaks.
As previously reported, the FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter who obtained classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.
Feds executed a search warrant at the Alexandria, Virginia, home of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson last month as part of an investigation into a Maryland system administrator who has a top security clearance.
The contractor who stashed the classified documents at his home, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, is currently in jail.
FBI agents reportedly found classified intelligence reports in Perez-Lugones’ lunchbox and basement.
Rubio said the Pentagon contractor leaked the Maduro capture plans.
The US Army’s Delta Force captured Maduro last month. The leaked plans could have put the special operators in harm’s way.
On Tuesday, a federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s request to search Natanson’s electronics.
“Accordingly, the Court rejects the government’s request to conduct an unsupervised, wholesale search of all Movants’ seized data using a government filter team. To gather the information the government needs to prosecute its criminal case without authorizing an unrestrained search and violating Movants’ First Amendment and attorney-client privileges, the Court will conduct the review itself,” judge William Porter wrote.
“No easy remedy exists here. Movants’ First Amendment rights have been restrained. The government seized all of Ms. Natanson’s work product, documentary material, and devices, terminating her access to the confidential sources she developed and to all the tools she needs as a working journalist. The government’s proposed remedy—that she simply buy a new phone and laptop, set up new accounts, and start from scratch—is unjust and unreasonable,” the judge wrote.
Hellbound and Down 