Judge orders release of contractor accused of sharing classified info with Wapo reporter
A prosecutor says Aurelio Perez-Lugones disclosed info on U.S. military movements related to Venezuela.
The arrest of Aurelio Perez-Lugones triggered a controversial search of a Washington Post reporter's home. | Pablo Martinez /AP Photo
BALTIMORE — A federal judge has ordered the release of a government contractor charged with forwarding classified information to a Washington Post reporter.
U.S. District Judge Michael Maddox called the alleged leaks by Aurelio Perez-Lugones “extremely grave,” but said the dangers posed by releasing the Navy veteran could be mitigated by putting him on home detention and location monitoring while barring him from using any internet-connected devices.
Justice Department prosecutors had urged that Perez-Lugones, who has been in jail since his arrest in January, be kept in pretrial detention because of the possibility he could disclose additional classified information to Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, whom he is accused of sharing national security secrets with.
“The government has no way of knowing what he has retained and what he is able to provide to others,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia McLane said during a hearing Monday. “The person he was communicating with is still employed and has a willingness to accept classified and national defense information. … The receptacle of additional national defense information is still available to the defendant.”
Perez-Lugones’ arrest triggered a controversial search of Natanson’s home in Virginia and the seizure of her phones and computers. The magistrate judge who approved that search warrant, William Porter, was aware that Natanson was a journalist. However, he has complained that prosecutors did not inform him about a federal law that restricts search warrants for records held by reporters or news organizations.
Following protests by Natanson and the Post that the search threatened the privacy of her communication with more than 1,000 sources and effectively cut her off from them, Porter suspended the FBI’s access to the devices seized from her home. He has said he will sift through the records to search for those related to Perez-Lugones. Prosecutors asked a federal district judge in Virginia to block that plan, but the judge has not yet ruled on that request.
About two weeks after his arrest, Perez-Lugones was indicted on five charges of unauthorized transmission of national defense information and one count of retaining national defense information. He has pleaded not guilty.
At the hearing Monday, McLane was more specific about the documents Perez-Lugones is accused of sharing with Natanson.
“This was not old information. This was current information regarding military movement in the Caribbean, in the Gulf and specifically with Venezuela,” the prosecutor said. “We have a man who has thrown everything away in an attempt to get back at the administration.”
But defense attorney Courtney Francik said there was no evidence that her client has “a historical Rolodex of classified information in his head.”
“Mr. Perez-Lugones has lost his job. He’s lost his clearance. He doesn’t have any access to any classified system,” she said.
Maddox, a Biden appointee, said the prosecution’s suggestions that Perez-Lugones could disclose classified information he recalls were too speculative to amount to the “clear and convincing” evidence needed to block his release.
“There is no evidence that Mr. Perez-Lugones has ever disclosed historical secrets,” the judge said.
Maddox set trial in the case for Feb. 22.
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