FBI Raids Home of Washington Post Reporter as Attacks on Press Freedom Intensify Under Trump

The FBI raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson this week and seized her electronic devices, part of a leak probe into a government contractor accused of mishandling classified government materials. Natanson has reported extensively on the Trump administration’s changes to the federal bureaucracy, including mass layoffs of government workers. This comes amid a broader pattern of attacks on the media, including lawsuits, funding cuts, and increasing media and technology consolidation.

“It’s hard not to see [the FBI raid] as an effort to intimidate not just journalists, but the sources that would communicate with them,” says Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “It’s a terrible time for press freedom. … We need the press to inform the public about the government’s actions and decisions and to help us hold government officials to account.”