Judge blocks DoJ from searching Washington Post reporter’s seized devices
Court itself to search devices for documents related to national security inquiry as newspaper calls ruling ‘victory’
A federal judge has prohibited the justice department from searching electronic devices it seized from a Washington Post reporter, ruling that the court will search the devices for documents related to a national security investigation itself.
In his ruling, magistrate judge William Porter criticized the Trump administration for omitting relevant case law in its application for a search warrant to seize the devices in the first place, but acknowledged “the possibility that classified national security information may be among the seized material” complicated the matter.
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