Overview
- U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter sharply questioned prosecutors for not raising the Privacy Protection Act when seeking a warrant for reporter Hannah Natanson’s home, asking, “How could you miss it?”
- Porter said he had previously rejected versions of the warrant and is weighing remedies that include returning devices or using a court‑supervised filter team, signaling reluctance to order a wholesale return.
- Agents seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch from Natanson’s Alexandria home on Jan. 14 as part of a national security leak probe tied to a Pentagon contractor.
- Justice Department lawyers argued the materials hold evidence in an active investigation and said they were not on a fishing expedition, while acknowledging in court that more data was collected than strictly responsive to the warrant.
- The Washington Post says the search violated journalist protections and has chilled confidential sourcing; the judge has temporarily barred the government from reviewing the seized data while he considers the newspaper’s challenge.