According to the paper, the search warrants “alleged there was probable cause to believe that identity theft and unlawful computer acts had been committed involving Marion business owner Kari Newell.” But when a Record reporter requested a copy of the probable cause affidavit necessary for such a warrant, the district court reportedly “issued a signed statement saying no affidavit was on file.”

“Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves,” Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation declared in a statement.

It’s unclear exactly what police were looking for in the raid on the Record office or its owners’ homes. But if the situation laid out by the Record is accurate, its staff did nothing wrong and should not be being treated like criminals. They absolutely have a right to investigate information leaked to them, no matter where that information originally came from. And they certainly have a right to question or notify police about what they were told.

Nor is a raid on the newspaper office justified if police were investigating criminal wrongdoing by a third party. If the aim was to obtain the identity of the source who provided the information about Newell, police could have questioned the vice mayor, subpoenaed records from the social media company, or subpoenaed records from the paper—all paths that don’t involve literally raiding a press outlet, seizing its servers, and taking reporters’ computers and phones.

At best, that would be an illegal overreaction to allegations of criminal wrongdoing by a third party. But the fact that the Record‘s leadership came to police with accusations about law enforcement corruption not long before the raid suggests something worse may have been afoot: retaliation, intimidation, or an attempted cover-up.

Eric Meyer told the Reflector the message was clear: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”

Meyer “believes the newspaper’s aggressive coverage of local politics and issues played a role,” reports the Associated Press. “He said the newspaper was examining Cody’s past work with the Kansas City, Missouri, police as well.”

The raid has received national attention—and further reason to believe police were targeting the paper or its staff.

“Cody, the police chief, defended the raid on Sunday, saying in an email to The Associated Press that while federal law usually requires a subpoena—not just a search warrant—to raid a newsroom, there is an exception ‘when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing,’” the AP reports. “Cody did not give details about what that alleged wrongdoing entailed.”