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Court Rules Against Justice Dept. Search of Reporter’s Computers

NYT > Business > Media · Erik Wemple · last updated

The judge said the court itself would search the devices, which were seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month.

A federal magistrate judge ruled on Tuesday that the court, and not the Justice Department, would search devices that the government seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month, resolving an impasse over how to handle the materials.

The judge, William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia, came down against an “unsupervised, wholesale” search expedition conducted by the government.

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