Washington Post Demands Government Return Materials Seized from Reporter

The Washington Post demanded in a court filing Wednesday that federal law enforcement officials return electronic devices the government seized from a staff reporter’s home last week, writing that the extraordinary search “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists.”

Federal agents executed a search warrant on Jan. 14 at the Virginia home of reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing two phones, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch.

It is exceptionally rare for law enforcement officials to conduct searches at reporters’ homes. The law allows a search of a reporter’s home, but federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it more difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources or information.

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