Kash Patel Reveals Chilling New Particulars After FBI Raid At WaPo Reporter’s Residence
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Wednesday that agents raided the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of a national security investigation into the illegal leaking of classified military intelligence.
Patel announced the operation in a statement on X, saying federal investigators moved after uncovering that a journalist had been receiving and publishing sensitive information from a Pentagon-linked government contractor.
Agents searched the Alexandria, Virginia, home of Hannah Natanson, who covers the federal workforce for the newspaper, according to a source familiar with the matter. Investigators seized her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch, The Washington Post reported. One of the computers was her personal device and the other was issued by the paper.
Natanson recently described herself as “the federal government whisperer” in a Dec. 24 article about covering President Trump’s push to shrink Washington’s bureaucracy.
“We can’t talk,” a man who answered the door at Natanson’s home told The Post.
“This morning the FBI and partners executed a search warrant of an individual at the Washington Post who was found to allegedly be obtaining and reporting classified, sensitive military information from a government contractor, endangering our warfighters and compromising America’s national security,” Patel wrote. “The alleged leaker was arrested this week and is in custody. As this is an ongoing investigation, we will have no further comment.”
This morning the @FBI and partners executed a search warrant of an individual at the Washington Post who was found to allegedly be obtaining and reporting classified, sensitive military information from a government contractor – endangering our warfighters and compromising…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) January 14, 2026
Attorney General Pam Bondi also confirmed the operation, saying the contractor is now behind bars.
“This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” Bondi wrote on X.
“The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country.”
The target of the probe is Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland systems administrator with top-secret clearance who worked for a government subcontractor in Annapolis Junction.
According to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 9, Perez-Lugones accessed secure government databases to view classified intelligence tied to a foreign country, took screenshots and printed them on Oct. 28, 2025, even though he “had no need to know and was not authorized to search for” the material.
Between Jan. 5 and 7, he allegedly reviewed additional classified files and took handwritten notes on a yellow legal pad that he brought home.
Federal agents searched his Laurel, Maryland, residence on Jan. 8 and found “multiple documents that were marked SECRET,” the affidavit said.
“One or more of these documents are related to national defense,” FBI Special Agent Keith Starr wrote.
Perez-Lugones now faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to keep him locked up, warning he poses a serious threat.
“The Defendant is charged with a serious national security violation,” federal prosecutors wrote in a Jan. 13 court filing. “Agents seized documents containing national defense information from the Defendant’s car and home. However, the Government cannot seize everything in his head.”
They added that “only detention would provide the government a way to monitor whether the Defendant uses any of his knowledge to threaten national security.”
U.S. District Judge George Levi Russell III is scheduled to review Perez-Lugones’ pretrial release status at a hearing in Baltimore on Thursday.
His attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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