James Madison stood about a foot shorter and was, probably, some 150 lbs lighter than our current chief executive. And “Lil’ Jimmy,” as he assuredly would have been known in our times, understood something that his presidential descendant does not grasp today: the reason we have a First Amendment which carves out specific protections for the press is because, in Madison’s own words, a government that does not allow provide public information about its works is a “prologue to a farce or a tragedy.”
Under the leadership of bug-eyed podcaster Kash Patel, the FBI this morning raided the home of The Washington Post’sreporter Hannah Natanson. They did so as part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a now-arrested federal subcontractor accused of leaking classified intelligence reports. The Fibbies seized Natanson’s laptops, phone, and a Garmin smart watch.
The search itself was illegal. No need to take my word for it. The 1980 Privacy Protection Act (PPA) clearly states that it is unlawful for “a government officer or employee, in connection with the investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense, to search for or seize any work product materials possessed by a person reasonably believed to have a purpose to disseminate to the public a newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public communication”—except in very specific cases which this raid does not appear to meet.
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