A former ABC News journalist, James Gordon Meek, has been charged with “transporting” images that revealed the sexual abuse of children, as per reports by the US Department of Justice. Meek, who had worked as a national security correspondent, was arrested in Arlington, Virginia, on January 31.
James Gordon Meek, a 53-year-old producer who covered wars, terrorism and major crimes for a news network, was detained on Tuesday, months after a government search of his home in Arlington, Virginia, was done. Police seized some of his home’s electronic equipment and discovered pictures of young children engaging in sexually explicit behavior. According to court documents, authorities also uncovered many discussions in which “participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children.”
According to officials, the investigation into Meek started with a tip from a business that stores and distributes online information. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was informed by Dropbox in March 2021 about five allegedly child pornographic videos kept on one of its customers’ accounts, the FBI claimed in court documents. The records state that the IP address matched Meek’s apartment and that the Dropbox username was “James Meek.”
As reported by the FBI, an analysis of an iPhone found in Meek’s residence revealed that the phone’s owner and another user of the messaging service Kik traded recordings of children being sexually assaulted. Images of child sex exploitation were also found on an external hard drive in Meek’s kitchen and a laptop in his living room.
Deputy U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell testified at a hearing on Wednesday that Meek interacted online with juveniles and suspected minors and that his electronic records demonstrate he talked to others about wanting to commit child sexual abuse. She said that Meek “was pretending to be a young girl” while having graphic interactions with children on Instagram. In an FBI statement, one girl who was questioned by law authorities “confirmed that Meek and other men had approached her through Snapchat and had pressured her to provide pictures depicting sexually explicit conduct.”
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Meek will “litigate the case,” according to defense attorney Eugene Gorokhov, in Alexandria federal court, the same venue where he has reported cases there for years, most notably covering an Islamic State terrorist’s trial there. Meek, according to Gorokhov, has never tried to engage with minors and has no past criminal history. Meek, according to him, was well-known for looking into the unresolved wartime fatalities of US service members and for helping those whose loved ones had been kidnapped by terrorists. “There’s not a single allegation of contact — actual, hands-on, physical contact — with a child,” Gorokhov said.
According to Bedell, it took prosecutors roughly nine months following the search of Meek’s flat to charge him because they “had to review voluminous amounts of data.” According to Bedell, Meek was intrigued by sexual assault materials featuring young children based on the data discovered on his devices. “In speaking with law enforcement after the search, he told them that his life was over,” Bedell said.
If found guilty, Meek, may receive a term of up to 20 years in jail with a minimum sentence of five years. A few days before the FBI searched his flat, his final story for ABC News was released in April 2022. According to the network, he quit that same month while the news channel refused to comment.
The federal inquiry of Meek came to light last year when Rolling Stone magazine revealed that the FBI had raided his home and discovered that he was in possession of classified information.The magazine stated that it appeared to be the first search “carried out on a journalist by the Biden administration” when it went through Meek’s flat.
While the Justice Department had previously faced controversy over its attempts to obtain journalists’ records in intrusion cases, Attorney General Merrick Garland in October issued official rules that forbid federal investigators from confiscating reporters’ phone records, fulfilling a pledge President Biden had made months earlier. But, the Justice Department was attempting to identify who gave journalists’ access to secret information during that dispute over reporters’ records. Like the previous policy, Garland’s new one did not include journalistic endeavors unrelated to news gathering. However, the issue of classified materials was not raised during the case’s Wednesday extended court session or in legal filings.
The latest ruling by the Justice department says: “The policy is not intended to shield from accountability members of the news media who are the subjects or targets of a criminal investigation for conduct outside the scope of newsgathering”.
In 2013, Meek began working as an investigative producer for ABC News’ Washington office. Prior to joining the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, he was a senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the New York Daily News. He most recently contributed as a writer and narrator to the Hulu documentary “3212 Un-redacted,” which was released in 2021 and was the result of an extensive investigation by ABC into the deaths of four American Special Forces soldiers in Africa.
Gorokhov claimed that shortly after the FBI raid last year, Meek left ABC News and took his name out of a book they had co-written. Meek was chosen for an award by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation last year, according to the attorney, but he opted not to attend the ceremony. “He didn’t want to somehow tarnish the organization,” Gorokhov said. The foundation’s website does not name Meek among its award honorees. Meek was given the organization’s 2022 World Press Freedom Prize, “which he ultimately declined,” a spokeswoman for the group claimed after this story was published.
In order to keep Meek in his house while he awaits trial, a federal magistrate court ordered electronic monitoring of his computers and other devices. Nevertheless, it delayed the decision’s implementation. In order to keep Meek incarcerated, prosecutors stated they would file an appeal.
