Ranking Members Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia Demand Answers from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi After Federal Agents Raid Home of Washington Post Reporter
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary and Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded answers from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi following the FBI raiding a Washington Post reporter’s home and seizing a phone, two laptops, and other work devices that she used to communicate with whistleblowers in what appears to be a blatant attempt at intimidation and retribution.
Last week, federal agents raided the home of Washington Post journalist Hannah Natanson after she spent more than a year reporting on the Trump Administration’s illegal actions and purge of the federal workforce.
In the letter to Attorney General Bondi, Ranking Members Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia wrote, “This raid flies in the face of longstanding protections for journalists and current DOJ policy. The Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, mandates that journalists’ “materials generally cannot be searched or seized unless they are reasonably believed to relate to a crime committed by the person possessing the materials.” Given DOJ has reportedly informed Ms. Natanson that she is not a target of the investigation, there does not appear to be any justification for searching and seizing her own materials. And although Trump’s DOJ has, unwisely, revised a policy forbidding searches of reporters’ materials, you promised that “investigative techniques relating to newsgathering are an extraordinary measure to be deployed as a last resort when essential to a successful investigation or prosecution.” But this raid on Ms. Natanson’s home was apparently neither “essential” nor employed as a “last resort”: DOJ charged the subject of their investigation without these materials and failed to contact Ms. Natanson to simply request the material in question—a sensible first step.”
In the letter to FBI Director Patel, Ranking Members Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia wrote, “The broad scope of this unjustified raid appears to reflect the Trump Administration’s continuing campaign to punish and dissuade the media and whistleblowers from reporting any damaging facts about the Administration. Before becoming FBI Director, you stated in an interview that Trump should “come after people in the media” and admitted law enforcement would “prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Since President Trump’s inauguration, federal law enforcement has limited visas for journalists, banned mainstream media reporters from the Pentagon for not following official narratives, limited the Associated Press’s access in the White House, assaulted members of the press during protests, punished law firms that have represented journalists, and threatened network’s broadcast licenses for unfavorable coverage. President Trump himself has relentlessly attacked the press, and in an unusual and retributive speech at DOJ, baselessly accused the news media writ large of “illegal behavior.” By all accounts, Ms. Natanson was targeted, like those other media figures and organizations above, because she was exercising her First Amendment right to report on information she obtained.”