Hannah Natanson Biography – Hannah Natanson Wiki

Hannah Natanson is an esteemed journalist with The Washington Post, focusing on the transformation of the federal government under the Trump administration and its repercussions. She contributed to a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2022, thanks to their comprehensive coverage of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prior to this role, Natanson reported on national K-12 education topics from December 2022 to January 2025 and covered Virginia’s educational scene from December 2019 to November 2022. Her work on a podcast series about school gun violence earned her a Peabody Award in 2024. Natanson began her journey with the Post as an intern in June 2019.

As detailed on her LinkedIn profile, Natanson’s career began with the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical research intern in Bethesda, Maryland, in May 2016. She then took up reporting internships at The Information in San Francisco during the summer of 2017 and at The Washington Post in Washington, D.C., the following year. Her editorial skills were honed at The Harvard Crimson, where she served as both a Staff Writer and Managing Editor.

Honors and Awards

Natanson’s accolades are numerous, including a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist nomination for Breaking News Reporting with her team, a first-place National Award for News Reporting from the Education Writers Association the same year, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and a 2024 George Foster Peabody Award in Radio/Podcast. She was also a 2024 finalist for the Poynter Journalism Prizes First Amendment Award and received the Society of Professional Journalists Dateline Award for Investigative Journalism in 2024.

Education

Graduating Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors in English from Harvard University in 2019, Natanson completed her high school education at Georgetown Day School in 2015. She is also a Journalism Fellow with the Fellowships for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).

Hannah Natanson Age

The Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson was born in 1997 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. She is 28 years old.

Hannah Natanson FBI Search

On Wednesday, January 14, 2026, the FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials. Natanson was at her home in Virginia at the time of the search. Federal agents searched her home and her devices, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch. One of the laptops was her personal computer, the other a Post-issued laptop.

Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the probe, The Washington Post reported. The warrant said that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports from secure government facilities that were later found in his lunch box and his basement, according to an FBI affidavit.

“This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X.

“The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country,” Bondi wrote.

In an email to The Post’s newsroom, Executive Editor Matt Murray called the search an “extraordinary, aggressive action” that is “deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work.”

Condemnation

“This raid should disturb all Americans. The United States is at a critical juncture as the Trump administration continues to roll back civil liberties. Using the FBI—funded by American taxpayers—to seize a reporter’s electronic devices, including her official work laptop, is a blatant violation of journalistic protections and undermines the public’s right to know,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Without assurances that journalists can protect their reporting materials, accountability journalism will suffer a major setback, eroding yet another mechanism for government accountability.”

“This was an unconscionable attack on a free press,” said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes. “There is nothing more intimidating than going into someone’s home, trying to violate the confidentiality of sources vital to holding our government officials accountable to the people they are sworn to serve.”

Hannah Natanson Family

Journalist Hannah Natanson resides in Virginia with her family, including her husband.

Hannah Natanson Nationality

Hannah Natanson is of American nationality.