Alleged leak to Washington Post leads to indictment of federal contractor
A federal grand jury indicted a government contractor accused of leaking classified information to a Washington Post reporter. The case came under scrutiny after the FBI raided the reporter’s home and seized her phone and laptops, raising concerns about First Amendment violations.
Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, 61, of Laurel, Maryland, is charged with five counts of unlawfully transmitting and one count of unlawfully retaining national defense information. If convicted, he could be sentenced to as many as 60 years in prison.
Perez-Lugones has worked as a system engineer and information technology specialist for a government contractor since 2002 and had top-secret security clearance, according to the Department of Justice.
The indictment alleges that, beginning last October, he accessed classified reports, printed and copied them and sent them to a reporter. At least two of the documents allegedly contained information about national defense.
The leaks resulted in the publication of five news stories, officials said. At one point, Perez-Lugones allegedly messaged the reporter that the leaks would halt, at least temporarily.
“I’m going quiet for a bit … just to see if anyone starts asking questions,” he wrote, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment does not name — or charge — the reporter: Hannah Natanson, who covers President Donald Trump’s restructuring of the federal workforce for The Post.
Officials say national security endangered
Authorities did not specify what was contained in the leaked documents. Nor did they describe harm they may have caused to national security.
However, in a press release, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “illegally disclosing classified defense information is a grave crime against America that puts both our national security and the lives of our military heroes at risk. This Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant in protecting the integrity of America’s classified intelligence.”
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A 1980 federal law, passed after a police raid on a college paper’s newsroom, restricts the use of search warrants for records related to newsgathering.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Perez-Lugones “printed and removed classified documents from his workplace on multiple occasions” before passing them to the reporter. Patel warned other leakers they would face consequences similar to Perez-Lugones’.
“Protecting our country’s secrets is essential to the safety of our most sensitive intelligence, military and law enforcement operations,” Patel said. “The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate everyone who seeks to undermine our national security and hold them accountable.”
It’s not clear what stories resulted from the alleged leaks. Natanson contributed to an article in October that cited government documents obtained by The Post as saying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had reached out to Russia, China and Iran for possible military aid.
Natanson also was among the reporters who wrote a November assessment of potential U.S. military strikes against Venezuela — a story that did not appear to be based on leaked material. She also has written about administrative problems in the Social Security administration during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. Those articles include one headlined “How Social Security has gotten worse under Trump.”
Post challenges raid
The indictment was announced a day after a magistrate judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered federal investigators to stop any review of Natanson’s devices while he considers a request by The Post to have them returned. A hearing is scheduled for early February.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter wrote in his order that the government must preserve any materials seized during the raid and may not review them until the court authorizes it, The New York Times reports.
The search and seizure from Natanson’s home drew backlash from First Amendment rights advocates and raised questions about freedom of the press as agents did not seek a subpoena to obtain them.
The Justice Department may have violated a 1980 law that restricts the use of search warrants for records related to news gathering.
The Post says the raid “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
