Failure to Alert Judge to Press Law for Reporter Search Draws Ethical Scrutiny; The New York Times, February 5, 2026

Charlie Savage , The New York Times; Failure to Alert Judge to Press Law for Reporter Search Draws Ethical Scrutiny

"The disclosure that the Justice Department failed to alert a judge about a 1980 law protecting journalists when applying for a warrant to search a Washington Post reporter’s home last month is casting new scrutiny on the legal issues raised by the raid.

Specialists in legal ethics said that if the prosecutor who submitted the application, Gordon D. Kromberg, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, knew about the 1980 law, the failure to bring it up violated a longstanding legal ethics rule.

The Justice Department and Mr. Kromberg did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did lawyers for The Post and its reporter.

Here is a closer look."

F.B.I. Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist in a Leak Investigation; The New York Times, January 14, 2026

Benjamin Mullin, Devlin Barrett, Charlie Savage and Erik Wemple , The New York Times; F.B.I. Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist in a Leak Investigation

"F.B.I. agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified material, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s tactics in seeking information from the news media.

It is exceedingly rare, even in investigations of classified disclosures, for federal agents to search a reporter’s home. A 1980 law generally bars search warrants for reporters’ work materials, unless the reporters themselves are suspected of committing a crime related to the materials.

The Washington Post reporter, Hannah Natanson, had spent the past year covering the Trump administration’s effort to fire federal workers and redirect much of the work force toward enforcing his agenda. Many of those employees shared with her their anger, frustration and fear with the administration’s changes.

A spokesperson for The Washington Post said on Wednesday that the publication was reviewing and monitoring the situation. The F.B.I. agents, executing a search warrant, seized laptops, a phone and a smartwatch during their search. An article in The Post said the publication had received a subpoena on Wednesday morning seeking information related to a government contractor."