A federal grand jury indicted a Pentagon contractor who allegedly leaked classified information to a reporter with The Washington Post. Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones has now been charged with five counts of unlawfully transmitting material and one count of unlawfully retaining classified national defense information.
Between October 2025 and January 2026, Perez-Lugones accessed “classified reports, printed or otherwise copied the information in these classified reports, and removed the printouts and information from the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) where he worked,” the Justice Department explained. The national defense information was then sent to a reporter, who then authored material containing the intelligence.
On January 8, a federal court authorized search warrants for Perez-Lugones’s residence and vehicle. Investigators found a document labeled as “SECRET” in his basement.
“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,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “This Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant in protecting the integrity of America’s classified intelligence.”
“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 stated. “Protecting our country’s secrets is essential to the safety of our most sensitive intelligence, military, and law enforcement operations. The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate everyone who seeks to undermine our national security and hold them accountable.”
Should he be convicted, Perez-Lugones faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each count of retention and transmission of national defense material.
