A government contractor whose handling of classified information triggered a court-authorized search of a Washington Post reporter’s home was charged Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland with six felony violations of the Espionage Act, the Justice Department said.
Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, 61, was indicted on five counts of unlawfully transmitting and one count of unlawfully retaining national defense information, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland announced.
While the announcement did not name the journalist Perez-Lugones allegedly sent classified information to, DOJ officials said the charges stemmed from his sharing of national security secrets with Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson.
The federal investigation of Perez-Lugones swept in Natanson last week when the FBI searched her Alexandria, Virginia, home and seized several electronic devices in a bid to unearth evidence of her contact with the information technology contractor and Navy veteran.
That search drew criticism from First Amendment and press freedom advocates for departing from the usual practice of subpoenaing records from the media instead of seizing them. It also raised questions about whether DOJ complied with a 1980 law that sharply restricts the use of search warrants for records related to newsgathering.
On Wednesday, a magistrate judge in Alexandria ordered investigators to halt any review of Natanson’s devices until the court rules on a request from her and the Post to return them. A hearing on the matter is slated for early February.
The text of the indictment against Perez-Lugones was not immediately available Thursday, but the DOJ announcement alleged that, between October and January, he “repeatedly accessed classified reports, printed or copied the information in these classified reports, and then removed this classified information from the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) where he worked.”
“Perez-Lugones transmitted the classified national defense information to a reporter … who was not authorized to receive it. In turn, [the reporter] co-authored and contributed to at least five articles that contained classified information Perez-Lugones provided, resulting in the dissemination of the information to the public,” the DOJ statement said.
Natanson is not charged with any offense.
DOJ claims that on Jan. 8, the day FBI agents searched Perez-Lugones’ Laurel, Maryland, home, he wrote to Natanson on an encrypted app: “I’m going quiet for a bit … just to see if anyone starts asking questions.”
Perez-Lugones could face a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison if convicted on all charges, but defendants in federal criminal cases are usually sentenced under guidelines that typically call for shorter sentences. Last week, a magistrate judge ordered Perez-Lugones released pending trial, but prosecutors appealed that ruling and he and his attorneys later withdrew his request for release, at least for now.
“Illegally disclosing classified defense information is a grave crime against America that puts both our national security and the lives of our military heroes at risk,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant in protecting the integrity of America’s classified intelligence.”
A spokesperson for the Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
