President Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi announced today that a Pentagon contractor who has been accused of leaking information to a Washington Post journalist, has been arrested.
Bondi wrote on Wednesday: “This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. The leaker is currently behind bars.”
On Wednesday, FBI agents searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who according to The New York Times “has spent the past year covering the Trump administration’s effort to fire federal workers and redirect much of the work force to enforcing his agenda.”
The Times reported that “many of those employees shared with [Natanson] their anger, frustration and fear with the administration’s changes.”
This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. The leaker is…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 14, 2026
[Note: In common legal protocol, the arrested Pentagon contractor would be referred to as the alleged leaker, as he/she has yet to be convicted of a crime.]
Democratic political pundit Ed Krassenstein replied to Bondi: “Imagine if Joe Biden did this. You guys would say that he should be impeached for violating the first amendment.”
Many MAGA supporters are responding by calling for the imprisonment of the journalist, too, under the Espionage Act, though while leaking classified information is criminal, journalists are generally protected by the First Amendment for publishing received leaks (e.g., Pentagon Papers case).
Although Natanson was told by the investigators that she was not the focus of the investigation, her laptops, phone and smartwatch were seized from her home during the search.