Judge Halts Review of Seized Post Reporter's Devices

A federal judge in Virginia has temporarily barred the U.S. government from reviewing electronic devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson during an FBI search of her home earlier this month. The order, issued Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter, halts any examination of the materials until a hearing scheduled for February 6, allowing time for the Justice Department to respond to the newspaper's legal challenge.

The raid occurred on January 14 at Natanson's home in Virginia, as part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland-based systems engineer and Pentagon contractor with top-secret security clearance. Perez-Lugones was arrested on January 8 and charged with unlawfully retaining national defense information, including classified documents found in his home. Federal agents alleged that Perez-Lugones had messaged Natanson, though she is not a target of the probe and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

During the search, FBI agents seized several of Natanson's devices, including her work laptop and cellphone issued by The Washington Post, a personal MacBook Pro, a one-terabyte hard drive, a voice recorder and a Garmin watch....