Pam Bondi justifies FBI raid on Washington Post reporter amid classified leak concerns

WASHINGTON, DC: The Department of Justice Attorney General Pamela Bondi discussed the FBI seizing a Washington Post reporter, Hannah Natanson’s devices, while on Fox News’s ‘Hannity’ on Wednesday, January 14.

The warrant was issued in light of the Department of War system administrator, Aurelio Perez-Lugones’s arrest for leaking classified information.

While speaking of the search warrant against the reporter, the AG said that she was the one who had rescinded the Justice Department’s guideline to shield journalists from subpoenas.

However, she said that it wasn’t about Natanson’s First Amendment, but about the classified information that could have jeopardized lives. 

Pam Bondi chimes in on Aurelio Perez-Lugones’s arrest

While speaking to Sean Hannity on ‘Hannity’, General Attorney Pam Bondi commented on the arrest of Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who worked in the Department of War as an “IT guy.”

Bondi said that Lugones’s arrest and the search warrant against Natanson were about saving the lives of service men and women. 

Bondi added that Aurelio Perez-Lugones was a contractor who had classified information and was charged with leaking the same involving a foreign adversary.

“Today it’s been reported that the great men and women of the FBI executed a search warrant at the direction of Kash Patel and my office on the reporter’s home, seizing the devices containing classified material,” Bondi said. 

The AG added that this was what the Justice Department was looking into now and that Donald Trump had been very clear about those who would try to jeopardize the lives of men and women in the US military.

Sean Hannity raised a question about whether the reporter in question, Hannah Natanson, knew that the information she possessed was, in fact, classified. Replying to the same, Bondi said that if that was the case, they had the right to return to the Department of Justice.

“I cannot enter the Department of War,” she added.

Bondi added that she couldn’t talk about the facts related to the case because, so far, it was only a search warrant against Natanson to retrieve information that belonged to the Department of War.

However, the DOJ AG confirmed that Aurelio Perez-Lugones was in jail and would remain in jail. 

Matt Murray raises questions about media's ‘constitutional protection’

CNN analyst Brian Stelter took to X to share the content of an email sent by Matt Murray soon after the search of Natanson’s Virginia home.

The post read that according to the warrant, the raid was in connection with an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones and that Hannah Natanson or the Washington Post were not a target.

“Nonetheless, this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concerns around the constitutional protections for our work,” the X post read.