FBI Searches WaPo Reporter's Home Amid Classified Docs Probe

The Beat with Ari Melber

Ari Melber, MS NOW

Government, Politics, Daily News, News, Versant Media, Ms Now, Versant

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on the FBI executing a search warrant at a Washington Post reporter’s home in Virginia. This alarming escalation comes as the Trump administration targets other lawmakers with Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin confirming federal prosecutors are investigating her for a video she posted urging members of the military to resist illegal orders.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the beat. We begin with this escalation in President Trump's crackdown. The FBI has now
0:05.8	executed a new search warrant at a Washington Post journalist home in Virginia. The administration
0:13.3	says this is part of investigation into a government contractor that they accuse of illegally
0:18.0	retaining classified materials. The post-reporting FBI agents have now seized this reporter's phone, two laptops and a watch.
0:26.9	One of the laptops was a personal computer, the other a Washington Post-issued laptop.
0:31.6	Investigators tell the post-reporter that she's not the focus of this probe, that the target is a government contractor. And according to
0:38.4	the criminal complaint is alleged to have had secret documents in a lunchbox and his own basement,
0:45.0	which could be a violation of the rules. Attorney General Bondi alleges the post reporter also
0:50.3	published illegally leaked information. Of course, that is when you cover the government
0:55.1	what happens all the time. It is also worth noting the complaint, which may be partial, may only
1:02.0	be the start of the story, but the complaint itself does not accuse that contractor of leaking
1:06.5	classified information. This is obviously drawing intense scrutiny because while the government
1:12.5	does have wide latitude in legitimate national security cases, and there have been times in the
1:17.8	past where we've seen, as a last resort, reporters basically dealt with and investigated or
1:24.3	their materials investigated in security litigation, this comes amid a time where
1:30.1	the Trump DOJ under Bondi has very little credibility, and the president has mused about going
1:35.7	after all kinds of opponents and has done so. And he and his allies have viewed many in the press,
1:41.6	as you know, as their sort of political opponents.
1:45.5	Times reports that it's exceedingly rare to search reporters home, and it refers to a 1980 law
1:50.8	that banned searching reporters unless they are the suspect committed, I should say,
1:55.7	they are the suspect in a criminal probe.
1:57.7	Obviously, for example, being a journalist doesn't mean that the authorities
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