An Emmy award-winning ABC News investigative reporter who was working on a book about Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan got his apartment raided by the FBI recently and has been reported missing ever since.
The 52-year-old James Gordon Meek was first reported missing by The Rolling Stone earlier this week. Aside from his successful journalism career, Meek was also a former advisor for the House Homeland Security Committee.
The FBI had conducted a pre-dawn raid at his Arlington, Virginia apartment back in April reportedly over concerns of possession of classified materials. Meek had been reported missing since, according to The Rolling Stone.
Interviewing Meeks’ neighbors, The Rolling Stone found out that he has not been seen ever since the FBI raid.
“He fell off the face of the Earth,” one neighbor said, noting that they’ve asked around, “but no one knew the answer.”
An ABC News spokesperson told the Stone that Meeks “resigned very abruptly” and that he “hasn’t worked for us for months.”
“Mr. Meek is unaware of what allegations anonymous sources are making about his possession of classified documents,” Eugene Gorokhov, Meeks’ attorney, said in a statement. “If such documents exist, as claimed, this would be within the scope of his long career as an investigative journalist covering government wrongdoing. The allegations in your inquiry are troubling for a different reason: they appear to come from a source inside the government. It is highly inappropriate, and illegal, for individuals in the government to leak information about an ongoing investigation. We hope that the DOJ promptly investigates the source of this leak.”
The Rolling Stone report notes that it is unclear what story Meeks was working on that led to the FBI raid. The report further points out that Meeks was finishing a book titled “Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan.”
The co-author of the book, Lt. Col. Scott Mann says that he received a call earlier this year from Meeks over concerns about something unusual.
“He contacted me in the spring, and was really distraught, and told me that he had some serious personal issues going on and that he needed to withdraw from the project,” Mann said. “As a guy who’s a combat veteran who has seen that kind of strain — I don’t know what it was — I honored it. And he went on his way, and I continued on the project.”
According to the Justice Department policies, in order for the authorities to seize materials from journalists, the government would have to believe that the reporter is working for a hostile foreign power or a terrorist organization or be involved in situations like kidnappings or crimes against children.
This is not the first instinct where the Department of Justice under the Biden administration has raided and unconstitutionally seized materials from a journalist, violating their first amendment right. Earlier, in April 2021, the Biden Justice Department raided the homes of Project Veritas journalists and president, James O’Keefe for allegations of obtaining a diary abandoned by Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden.
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H/T: The Rolling Stone