Why the FBI search of a Washington Post reporter's home was dangerous |
Hannah Natanson is known around Washington political and journalistic circles as the “federal government whisperer.” And, as you might suspect, having insiders from the beleaguered Trump administration whispering in your reporter’s ear right now might put you in a dangerous place.
Natanson, a budding star reporter for the Washington Post, learned this on Jan. 14 when the FBI, search warrant in hand, swooped into her Virginia home to prowl around, with the reporter following. The FBI seized — without a subpoena — her phone, personal laptop, company-issued computer and her smart watch. This is extraordinary. If you know how reporters work, they live on their computers, their work product carefully stored and catalogued; their sources, hundreds of them, camouflaged as much as possible. In a court filing asking for the return of the devices, the Post noted that they “contain years of information about past and current confidential sources and other unpublished newsgathering materials — essentially her entire professional universe.”
Two years ago I spoke with the former editor of the Post, Marty Baron, who dealt with Trump in his first term.
“He doesn’t care what would happen to a journalist. He’d like to see reporters in jail,” he told me. Wary of this, Natanson kept notes from her reporting conversations in an encrypted drive; she never wrote down anyone’s name; used a browser with no search history; and a privacy screen for her iPhone and computer. “I carried both with me at all times, even walking between rooms in my house,” she said. Spy stuff.
Being a reporter these days is like being a spy — you need to cover your tracks. Because — let’s be honest — the White House Palace Guard sees you as the enemy, knows you are prying behind the scenes of Trump policy........