Post
Judge says #government may not search devices seized from #WashingtonPost #reporter
The ruling suggested that the federal judge in Virginia did not #trust the government [not this one anyway] to conduct a narrow search of Hannah Natanson’s devices.
#law #democracy #FreePress #journalism #Trump #authoritarianism #fascism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/24/washington-post-reporter-search/
A federal judge in Virginia rejected DOJ’s request to search through a #WashingtonPost reporter’s electronic devices as part of a national security #leak investigation, ruling that the court would instead be responsible for conducting the search.
The Tuesday ruling suggested that Magistrate Judge William Porter did not trust the #Trump admin to conduct a narrow search of the devices & feared that such an examination could risk exposing more than 1,000 of the reporter’s govt #sources to the #DOJ.
“Given the documented reporting on #government #leak investigations & the government’s well chronicled efforts to stop them, allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product — most of which consists of unrelated information from #confidential #sources — is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of the #WashingtonPost’s henhouse,” Porter wrote.
#law #democracy #FreePress #journalism #Trump #authoritarianism #fascism
Porter also sharply criticized prosecutors for not briefing him in their search warrant application on a federal #law that protects #reporters against searches in many situations: the #PrivacyProtectionAct of 1980. Their failure to inform him about the law before he approved the warrant in the case “has seriously undermined the Court’s confidence in the government’s disclosures in this proceeding,” he wrote.
#law #democracy #FreePress #journalism #Trump #authoritarianism #fascism
