4 ms·

“ Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case” Right underneath the headline. That’s pret

by chasd00 10mo ago

“ Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case” Right underneath the headline. That’s pretty normal for the FBI, assuming they had a search warrant.

reader9274 10mo ago
Of course they had a search warrant.
- cdrnsf 10mo ago
  ICE has been knocking down doors and ripping folks from their homes without warrants. Why would the FBI under this administration behave differently?
CodingJeebus 10mo ago
No, this is absolutely not normal as the article clearly states. Reporters are very rarely raided in the US under circumstances like these. The problem is that "classified materials" means whatever the government wants it to mean in this context. Is there a journalist you want to target for a particular reason? Just accuse them of handling classified information, which they don't ever have to produce to the public because it's "classified".
- notyourwork 10mo ago
  Trump keeps that kind of stuff in their guest bathroom, cool. Reporter, raid and straight to jail. What a timeline to witness. Elected officials glut preventing them from doing their duty.
  - NickC25 10mo ago
    Not only that, the word going around is some of the stuff found in the bathroom were far above top secret, including some Q-Clearance level stuff from the DoE. As in, the US's full knowledge of the technical capacity of Israel's nuclear weapons program, including how we obtained that information. That's now in the hands of the Saudis, Iran, the Chinese, the Russians, etc. And it was found in a fucking bathroom. Yet nobody seems to care that a Trump-appointed lackey magically (whose husband has credibly been linked to organized crime) found themselves on the case "by chance" and issued a whole bunch of bullshit non-appealable verbal rulings on how and why Donald Trump is innocent.
    - p_j_w 10mo ago
      Q clearance isn’t “far above top secret.” It’s TS plus Nuclear Weapons Information. The background investigation is exactly the same as TS and almost everyone that works at a DOE lab gets one: almost 100,000 people have access. It requires no polygraph like SCI and higher clearances.
- potato3732842 10mo ago
  >, this is absolutely not normal On what grounds? Just repeating a BS assertion doesn't make it true. The feds have been abusing journalists like this as long as I've been alive. It's not a lot, it's a trickle of them, maybe one a year or so in recent years. But one raid on one person isn't unprecedented or abnormal in any way. Now if you want to talk about frequency or the minimum size of thorn in side they'll go after it might be a different story. But nobody is saying that. I might think the behavior is despicable and probably also unlawful, and their "they had classified info" excuse is flimsy BS, but it is unfortunately somewhat normal. The problem is way, way, way worse, way longer running and way more institutionally entrenched than flabbergastingly moronic "these specific people right here right now did misdeeds" surface level assessment may comfortingly imply.
  - rockskon 10mo ago
    Not all bad things are the same. Raiding a reporter's house is very much an abnormal act to have taken place.
    - potato3732842 10mo ago
      >Not all bad things are the same. Who said they were? >Raiding a reporter's house is very much an abnormal act to have taken place. Only by invoking the most numerical slight of hand sort of "a DV is abnormal because we hand out a thousand traffic tickets a day and make only one or two DV arrests" logic is it abnormal. For the past 5+yr the FBI has raided the home of about one journalist per year. Every time the allegation has been about investigating the source of some leak. They didn't do one in 2024/2025 I don't think. Time Burke and the Kanye thing, Project Veritas in 2022 and 2023 and the ABC news guy the year before are recent ones that come to mind. I'm not gonna say they get a pass, but this is "the normal amount" for them. Once again, that doesn't make it right and I shouldn't have to say this but this comment should not be construed as an endorsement of the FBI or any specific activities they engage in.
      - lux-lux-lux 10mo ago
        > Time Burke and the Kanye thing, Project Veritas in 2022 and 2023 and the ABC news guy the year before are recent ones that come to mind Those were for computer fraud, possession of stolen property, and possession of child pornography, respectively. The first amendment allows journalists to publish classified material, it does not give them free license to commit crimes.
- chasd00 10mo ago
  Here’s a less sensational article. The journalist is not even a target of the investigation, the target is a contractor leaking documents. “ Natanson was told that she is not a target of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Instead, it appears to be related to an ongoing probe of a government contractor in Maryland.” https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-washington-post-search-doj https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-was...
  - collinmcnulty 10mo ago
    Please don’t be so naive as to think that this administration is above creating a pretext for raiding the home of their real target while claiming it’s about something else. It’s the same thing (minus the raid, plus an indictment) they’re doing to Jerome Powell.
  - floatrock 10mo ago
    oh you sweet summer child... to see the world with your simple star-spangled eyes...
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
- AlexandrB 10mo ago
  In some ways this is just desserts after American journalists decided that Julian Assange was not worth defending[1]. Still disheartening to see, since we need robust journalism to keep companies/politicians honest. [1] https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/1116371239705227265 https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/1116371239705227265
saghm 10mo ago
Can you point to other instances of the FBI raiding homes of journalists to investigate leaks? If not, it's hard to make a compelling case that this is "normal"
- potato3732842 10mo ago
  >Can you point to other instances of the FBI raiding homes of journalists to investigate leaks? James Burke, the Veritas guy, the ABC News guy, etc.
  - SV_BubbleTime 10mo ago
    I think James O’Keeffe was the Project Veritas guy. He had a legally obtained the original of Ashley Biden’s diary. Joe Biden’s daughter. Where in it a page she wrote while in therapy said she had inappropriate showers with her father.
    - vablings 10mo ago
      Legally obtained is dubious in this context. He likely knew it was stolen
      - SV_BubbleTime 10mo ago
        No one, including the FBI has ever made a statement that it was stolen and then charged O’Keefe for that. It was a raid to further “investigation” to determine for stolen. But don’t you think it’s more interesting you care less about a journalist being raided, then you do the outcome of a diary that explains that Biden according to his daughter sexually abused her?
        vablings 10mo ago
        > No one, including the FBI has ever made a statement that it was stolen and then charged O’Keefe for that This is blatantly false two people were charged in connection with interstate transport of stolen goods, and the raid was part of the investigation. The diary was taken because it was the stolen good in question and important for the FBI's case on prosecuting the individuals charged. >then you do the outcome of a diary that explains that Biden according to his daughter sexually abused her? The diary was never published, verified or entered into evidence VS the current POTUS has had multiple credible allegations with affidavits and testimony
bossyTeacher 10mo ago
As others pointed out, the problem with this is that you end up with a government that can target any reporter by claiming they have "classified materials". No need to prove what those materials are (because they are classified). This is how third world countries choke journalists.
- nickff 10mo ago
  In the USA, the claim has to be convincing to a judge, so it’s not quite as arbitrary as you indicate.
  - bossyTeacher 10mo ago
    Clearly, the bar for it to be convincing seems quite low here
    - lelanthran 10mo ago
      How do you know what papers the judge saw when issuing the warrant? I was not aware that the filings were public.
  - fzeroracer 10mo ago
    In order for ICE to raid homes they need to have a valid warrant signed by a judge, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them in Minneapolis doing warrantless raids.
    - nutjob2 10mo ago
      The current administration is utterly lawless. That is relatively minor compared to ICE shooting protestors and then stopping people from giving them medical attention.
    - cdrnsf 10mo ago
      They're supposed to. They've been breaking into homes without them.
- 10mo ago
g947o 10mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film) Interestingly enough, that was an event related to classified information with the same newspaper. > Set in 1971, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the infamous Pentagon Papers, a set of classified documents regarding the 20-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War and earlier in French Indochina back to the 1940s.

by chasd00 10mo ago

reader9274 10mo ago

Of course they had a search warrant.

cdrnsf 10mo ago
ICE has been knocking down doors and ripping folks from their homes without warrants. Why would the FBI under this administration behave differently?

CodingJeebus 10mo ago

No, this is absolutely not normal as the article clearly states. Reporters are very rarely raided in the US under circumstances like these. The problem is that "classified materials" means whatever the government wants it to mean in this context. Is there a journalist you want to target for a particular reason? Just accuse them of handling classified information, which they don't ever have to produce to the public because it's "classified".

notyourwork 10mo ago
Trump keeps that kind of stuff in their guest bathroom, cool. Reporter, raid and straight to jail. What a timeline to witness. Elected officials glut preventing them from doing their duty.
- NickC25 10mo ago
  Not only that, the word going around is some of the stuff found in the bathroom were far above top secret, including some Q-Clearance level stuff from the DoE. As in, the US's full knowledge of the technical capacity of Israel's nuclear weapons program, including how we obtained that information. That's now in the hands of the Saudis, Iran, the Chinese, the Russians, etc. And it was found in a fucking bathroom. Yet nobody seems to care that a Trump-appointed lackey magically (whose husband has credibly been linked to organized crime) found themselves on the case "by chance" and issued a whole bunch of bullshit non-appealable verbal rulings on how and why Donald Trump is innocent.
  - p_j_w 10mo ago
    Q clearance isn’t “far above top secret.” It’s TS plus Nuclear Weapons Information. The background investigation is exactly the same as TS and almost everyone that works at a DOE lab gets one: almost 100,000 people have access. It requires no polygraph like SCI and higher clearances.
potato3732842 10mo ago
>, this is absolutely not normal On what grounds? Just repeating a BS assertion doesn't make it true. The feds have been abusing journalists like this as long as I've been alive. It's not a lot, it's a trickle of them, maybe one a year or so in recent years. But one raid on one person isn't unprecedented or abnormal in any way. Now if you want to talk about frequency or the minimum size of thorn in side they'll go after it might be a different story. But nobody is saying that. I might think the behavior is despicable and probably also unlawful, and their "they had classified info" excuse is flimsy BS, but it is unfortunately somewhat normal. The problem is way, way, way worse, way longer running and way more institutionally entrenched than flabbergastingly moronic "these specific people right here right now did misdeeds" surface level assessment may comfortingly imply.
- rockskon 10mo ago
  Not all bad things are the same. Raiding a reporter's house is very much an abnormal act to have taken place.
  - potato3732842 10mo ago
    >Not all bad things are the same. Who said they were? >Raiding a reporter's house is very much an abnormal act to have taken place. Only by invoking the most numerical slight of hand sort of "a DV is abnormal because we hand out a thousand traffic tickets a day and make only one or two DV arrests" logic is it abnormal. For the past 5+yr the FBI has raided the home of about one journalist per year. Every time the allegation has been about investigating the source of some leak. They didn't do one in 2024/2025 I don't think. Time Burke and the Kanye thing, Project Veritas in 2022 and 2023 and the ABC news guy the year before are recent ones that come to mind. I'm not gonna say they get a pass, but this is "the normal amount" for them. Once again, that doesn't make it right and I shouldn't have to say this but this comment should not be construed as an endorsement of the FBI or any specific activities they engage in.
    - lux-lux-lux 10mo ago
      > Time Burke and the Kanye thing, Project Veritas in 2022 and 2023 and the ABC news guy the year before are recent ones that come to mind Those were for computer fraud, possession of stolen property, and possession of child pornography, respectively. The first amendment allows journalists to publish classified material, it does not give them free license to commit crimes.
chasd00 10mo ago
Here’s a less sensational article. The journalist is not even a target of the investigation, the target is a contractor leaking documents. “ Natanson was told that she is not a target of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Instead, it appears to be related to an ongoing probe of a government contractor in Maryland.” https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-washington-post-search-doj https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-was...
- collinmcnulty 10mo ago
  Please don’t be so naive as to think that this administration is above creating a pretext for raiding the home of their real target while claiming it’s about something else. It’s the same thing (minus the raid, plus an indictment) they’re doing to Jerome Powell.
- floatrock 10mo ago
  oh you sweet summer child... to see the world with your simple star-spangled eyes...
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
AlexandrB 10mo ago
In some ways this is just desserts after American journalists decided that Julian Assange was not worth defending[1]. Still disheartening to see, since we need robust journalism to keep companies/politicians honest. [1] https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/1116371239705227265 https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/1116371239705227265

saghm 10mo ago

Can you point to other instances of the FBI raiding homes of journalists to investigate leaks? If not, it's hard to make a compelling case that this is "normal"

potato3732842 10mo ago
>Can you point to other instances of the FBI raiding homes of journalists to investigate leaks? James Burke, the Veritas guy, the ABC News guy, etc.
- SV_BubbleTime 10mo ago
  I think James O’Keeffe was the Project Veritas guy. He had a legally obtained the original of Ashley Biden’s diary. Joe Biden’s daughter. Where in it a page she wrote while in therapy said she had inappropriate showers with her father.
  - vablings 10mo ago
    Legally obtained is dubious in this context. He likely knew it was stolen
    - SV_BubbleTime 10mo ago
      No one, including the FBI has ever made a statement that it was stolen and then charged O’Keefe for that. It was a raid to further “investigation” to determine for stolen. But don’t you think it’s more interesting you care less about a journalist being raided, then you do the outcome of a diary that explains that Biden according to his daughter sexually abused her?
      - vablings 10mo ago
        > No one, including the FBI has ever made a statement that it was stolen and then charged O’Keefe for that This is blatantly false two people were charged in connection with interstate transport of stolen goods, and the raid was part of the investigation. The diary was taken because it was the stolen good in question and important for the FBI's case on prosecuting the individuals charged. >then you do the outcome of a diary that explains that Biden according to his daughter sexually abused her? The diary was never published, verified or entered into evidence VS the current POTUS has had multiple credible allegations with affidavits and testimony

bossyTeacher 10mo ago

As others pointed out, the problem with this is that you end up with a government that can target any reporter by claiming they have "classified materials". No need to prove what those materials are (because they are classified). This is how third world countries choke journalists.

nickff 10mo ago
In the USA, the claim has to be convincing to a judge, so it’s not quite as arbitrary as you indicate.
- bossyTeacher 10mo ago
  Clearly, the bar for it to be convincing seems quite low here
  - lelanthran 10mo ago
    How do you know what papers the judge saw when issuing the warrant? I was not aware that the filings were public.
- fzeroracer 10mo ago
  In order for ICE to raid homes they need to have a valid warrant signed by a judge, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them in Minneapolis doing warrantless raids.
  - nutjob2 10mo ago
    The current administration is utterly lawless. That is relatively minor compared to ICE shooting protestors and then stopping people from giving them medical attention.
  - cdrnsf 10mo ago
    They're supposed to. They've been breaking into homes without them.
10mo ago

g947o 10mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film) Interestingly enough, that was an event related to classified information with the same newspaper. > Set in 1971, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the infamous Pentagon Papers, a set of classified documents regarding the 20-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War and earlier in French Indochina back to the 1940s.