‘The View’: Sunny Hostin Says FBI Search of Washington Post Reporter’s Home Is ‘Meant to Chill Reporters and Intimidate the Media’ | Video

The FBI searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson on Wednesday and, to “The View” host and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin’s eye, the move was “meant to chill reporters.”

Natanson covers the Trump administration regularly — namely, its culling of thousands of career workers across the federal bureaucracy. According to the FBI and the Post, Natanson herself was not the subject of the investigation that led to the search warrant, but nonetheless, agents searched her devices and seized a phone, two laptops, including her Post-issued laptop, and a Garmin watch.

“Are you trying to intimidate people? Because if the man [being investigated] is in jail and you know who did it, and you have all information, why are you going to her house?” Whoopi asked on Wednesday.

Hostin argued that the goal likely was intimidation, considering how “unprecedented” it is for federal agencies to search reporters’ homes.

“It’s so rare, and I think it’s almost unprecedented, because I couldn’t find any case addressing this particular issue,” she said. “And I think it’s meant to chill reporters and intimidate media, so that they don’t report. And that’s what you see in fascist regimes. That’s what you see.”

Host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed that “it’s definitely chilling from a First Amendment perspective,” and offered her previous White House experiences for perspective.

“Government officials, very oftentimes, will make agreements with journalists, when there’s information that could pose a risk to national security,” she explained. “And they will say, ‘This is embargoed until an action takes place. ‘Every single time I’ve been in that position, which is countless times, journalists have upheld the national security standards.”

So, the ABC hosts worried that future sources would be hesitant to talk to journalists now, if their homes and materials are getting searched unexpectedly by federal agencies.

You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.

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