Freedom of the Press Foundation Sues DOJ Over Reporter Search Warrant Records
A new lawsuit is putting the Justice Department’s treatment of journalists back under federal scrutiny.
Freedom of the Press Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking DOJ records on whether prosecutors concealed or downplayed legal protections for journalists when pursuing search warrants. The group says the records are needed to determine whether the department hid Privacy Protection Act issues from judges while trying to search reporters or seize their devices.
The lawsuit follows the FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, agents seized Natanson’s phone and two laptops during a Jan. 14 search connected to a leak investigation. A magistrate judge later blocked DOJ from reviewing the devices while the court conducts its own review.
The legal stakes center on the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that generally limits government searches targeting journalists’ work product and documentary materials. FPF says DOJ has not produced records requested about the raid and internal discussions of the law.
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The case lands amid a broader shift in DOJ policy. Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded Biden-era limits on seeking reporters’ records or compelling testimony in leak investigations, while saying procedures would still apply when such steps are considered essential.
Press-freedom groups have responded sharply. RTDNA said 31 press-freedom and civil-liberties organizations condemned the Natanson search and called for congressional oversight, passage of the PRESS Act and reforms to the Espionage Act.
The records lawsuits now create a document trail test: whether DOJ’s actions were isolated, policy-driven or part of a broader approach to leak investigations involving journalists.
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