The FBI raid on our reporter's home
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Early Wednesday, FBI agents raided the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation of a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.
The reporter – Hannah Natanson – was at her home in Virginia at the time of the search. She covers the federal government for The Post and spent the past year connecting with sources while reporting on the Trump administration’s efforts to fire federal workers.
Investigators said neither Natanson nor The Post are the focus of the probe, but many saw the search as a jarring new step aimed at limiting news organizations’ ability to gather information.
Today on “Post Reports,” democracy reporter Sarah Ellison joins host Elahe Izadi to discuss the unusual move by federal law enforcement and the lengths journalists go to to keep sources safe.
And, in the second half of the show, we bring you an excerpt from an April 2025 conversation with Natanson – about how she became The Post’s “federal government whisperer.”
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Dennis Funk and mixed by Sam Bair.
The April 23 episode was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon and edited by Peter Bresnan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Early Wednesday morning, the FBI raided a reporter's home, the home of our colleague, federal government reporter Hannah Natanson. |
| 0:12.9 | Raids like this are exceptionally rare. It was part of a national security case focused on a government contractor. |
| 0:20.2 | That's according to the warrant. |
| 0:22.0 | And neither Hannah nor the Post are targets of the investigation, the Post has been told. |
| 0:27.4 | But Hannah has spent the past year covering the Trump administration's efforts to fire federal workers, |
| 0:33.2 | and she has more than a thousand sources. |
| 0:35.9 | The raid of her home has now raised alarms for free press advocates and journalists, |
| 0:41.5 | says democracy reporter Sarah Ellison. |
| 0:43.9 | The people we talked to just saw the FBI search of Hannah Natenson's home as a really jarring escalation |
| 0:51.5 | aimed at reporters gathering information on the government. |
| 0:57.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:02.3 | I'm Elahe Izadi. It's Thursday, January 15th. |
| 1:07.1 | Today, we're going to bring you an excerpt from an interview we did with Hannah last year. |
| 1:12.1 | She talks about how she became a trusted reporter for federal workers who wanted to alert the public about what was happening inside of the government. |
| 1:21.2 | But first, I speak with democracy reporter Sarah Ellison. |
| 1:25.3 | We talk about why the FBI's actions here were so unusual, and how journalists are confronting |
| 1:31.4 | a new reality in trying to bring important stories to light. |
| 1:46.3 | Hi, Sarah. |
| 1:48.0 | Hi, thanks for having me. |
| 1:50.0 | Yeah, thanks for joining us this morning. |
| 1:56.2 | I want to start with simply just what happened on Wednesday morning at the home of Hannah Natanson. |
| 1:57.6 | Sure. |
... |
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