(The Epoch Times)—A federal grand jury has indicted a Maryland government contractor on charges of illegally transmitting and retaining classified national defense information, alleging he shared sensitive military intelligence reports with a Washington Post reporter.
Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, 61, of Laurel, Maryland, faces five counts of unlawful transmission and one count of unlawful retention under the Espionage Act, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Perez-Lugones, who held a top-secret security clearance for two decades while working as a contractor, is accused of accessing, printing, and removing classified reports from secure facilities between March 2025 and January 2026. Prosecutors say he then provided portions of those documents to a reporter, who cited them in at least five published articles.
A search of Perez-Lugones’s home and car earlier resulted in the discovery of documents marked “SECRET,” including one in a lunch box.
The reports contained intelligence about foreign adversaries’ military capabilities, according to court documents.
Federal authorities said their agencies will continue to aggressively investigate any cases it perceives as threats to national security.
“Illegally disclosing classified defense information is a grave crime against America that puts both our national security and the lives of our military heroes at risk,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
“Perez-Lugones allegedly printed and removed classified documents from his workplace on multiple occasions, took them home, and later passed them to a reporter who used the information in news articles,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “Protecting our country’s secrets is essential to the safety of our most sensitive intelligence, military, and law enforcement operations.”
Perez-Lugones’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He is scheduled for an arraignment in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
The case gained attention after FBI agents raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson on Jan. 14 as part of the investigation. Federal authorities seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive, and a Garmin watch during the search, according to court filings.
The Washington Post said Natanson, who covers federal workers within the Trump administration and acquired more than a thousand sources, was informed she is not a target of the probe and that the newspaper received a subpoena related to Perez-Lugones.
A federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked prosecutors from reviewing the seized materials on Wednesday, pending further arguments. U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter issued the order after Natanson’s lawyers argued the search violated protections for journalists.
Critics of the search say it represents a major threat to press freedom.
According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press—which tracks issues affecting First Amendment freedoms as they relate to members of the media—the raid on Natanson’s home marks the first time in U.S. history that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has raided a journalist’s home in connection with a national security leak.
Joseph Lord contributed to this report.
