Pentagon contractor indicted in leak case tied to search of Washington Post reporter’s home

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon contractor was indicted Thursday on charges that he illegally removed and shared classified national defense information with a journalist, a case that has drawn national attention after federal agents searched a reporter’s home as part of the investigation.

Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones was charged with five counts of unlawfully transmitting and one count of unlawfully retaining classified national defense information, the Justice Department said Thursday. The case, which has been linked to last week’s search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home in Virginia, has drawn scrutiny from press freedom advocates who say it reflects a more aggressive posture by the Justice Department toward leak investigations involving journalists.

Perez-Lugones is accused of taking home printouts of classified documents from his workplace and later passing them to a reporter, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. A Justice Department news release doesn’t name the reporter or the reporter’s employer, and the indictment itself wasn’t immediately made public. The reporter co-wrote and contributed to at least five articles that contained classified information provided by Perez-Lugones, authorities said.

Investigators found phone messages between Perez-Lugones and the reporter in which they discussed the...