A federal judge today ordered the US government to stop searching devices seized from the house of a Washington Post reporter. It may be only a temporary reprieve for the Post and reporter Hannah Natanson, however. Further proceedings will be held on whether the search can resume or whether the government must return the devices.

Natanson herself isn't the subject of investigation, but the FBI executed a search warrant at her home and seized her work and personal devices last week as part of an investigation into alleged leaks by a Pentagon contractor. The Post filed a motion to force the return of the reporter's property, and a separate motion for a standstill order that would prevent review of the seized devices until the court rules on whether they must be returned.

"Almost none of the seized data is even potentially responsive to the warrant, which seeks only records received from or relating to a single government contractor," a Post court filing today said. "The seized data is core First Amendment-protected material, and some is protected by the attorney-client privilege."

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The FBI searched a Washington Post reporter's home and seized her work and personal devices as part of an investigation into what Attorney General Pam Bondi called "illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor."

Executing a search warrant at the Virginia home of reporter Hannah Natanson on Wednesday morning, FBI "agents searched her home and her devices, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch," The Washington Post reported. "One of the laptops was her personal computer, the other a Washington Post-issued laptop. Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the probe."

Natanson regularly uses encrypted Signal chats to communicate with people who work or used to work in government, and has said her list of contacts exceeds 1,100 current and former government employees. The Post itself "received a subpoena Wednesday morning seeking information related to the same government contractor," the report said.

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FBI agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.

The Post reported that federal agents seized a phone, two laptops — one work and one personal — and a Garmin watch from reporter Hannah Natanson, who was at her home in Virginia at the time.

The government’s action raised questions about whether Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the Post in 2013, will step in in any way.

CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote in his Reliable Sources newsletter Wednesday morning that several staffers told him “they’re wondering what, if anything, Bezos will do to defend Natanson and the Post from this aggressive government action.”

Natanson covers the federal workforce and has been a part of Post’s “most high-profile and sensitive coverage during the first year of the second Trump administration,” according to the newspaper. But she is not the focus of the probe.

A warrant said that law enforcement is investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.

Natanson wrote a compelling first-person account in December of her time covering the Trump administration and the hundreds of government workers she’d been in contact with as sources.

Bezos’ influence at the Post has come into focus in recent years. In February he shook up the newspaper’s opinion pages by refocusing the section on supporting and defending what he called “two pillars” — personal liberties and free markets.

That action came in the wake of his decision in 2024 to end the newspaper’s tradition of endorsing candidates for president — including a reported spiking of the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. The action cost the Post more than 200,000 digital subscribers and a wave of backlash during the contentious run-up to Trump’s re-election.

After Trump’s re-election, Bezos joined other tech leaders in expressing a willingness to work with the administration. Bezos was among those who attended the presidential inauguration.