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IRE strongly condemns the raid of a Washington Post reporter’s home by the FBI, purportedly in an effort to seize classified documents provided to the reporter as she investigates President Donald Trump’s administration. 

“This was an unconscionable attack on a free press,” said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes. “There is nothing more intimidating than going into someone’s home, trying to violate the confidentiality of sources vital to holding our government officials accountable to the people they are sworn to serve.”

IRE stands with reporter Hannah Natanson and The Washington Post. 

This is the latest in a series of escalating attacks on the press by the Trump administration.

In September, IRE joined dozens of organizations in demanding the release of detained journalist Mario Guevara, who was later deported to El Salvador. He had been arrested while reporting on a protest against the Trump administration in Georgia. 

Also in September, IRE joined organizations condemning the Pentagon’s new requirement for reporters to sign a pledge that would limit their ability to report without government approval in exchange for a press credential.

Investigative journalists across the globe are being targeted by increasingly hostile governments as they attempt to do work that is essential to a free and fair society, often at great personal risk.

IRE demands that the FBI immediately explain why it took this highly intrusive action against a member of the media when federal laws and policies limit searches to the most extreme cases. Congress must investigate the incident and hold the FBI accountable for what appears to be an overreach of its powers and an attack on the First Amendment.

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