By Aaron Miller-
Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter James Gordon Meek, 52,(pictured) has not been seen publicly since armed FBI agents raided his penthouse apartment in Arlington, virginia, earlier this year, according to a new report from Rolling Stone.
During the raid, investigators reportedly sought classified documents Meek was believed to be in possession of, but the nature of the documents have not been ascertained.
Meek’s sudden absence has left many of his colleagues confused, given the outstanding time remaining on his contract. One of his colleagues described a picture in his office that was taken in a desert, in which all of the others posing with Meek had their faces blacked out.
Meek was a journalist of high credentials who worked for ABC News, having won several awards for breaking several major cases, including uncovering a United States military cover-up of the deaths of four Special Forces soldiers in Niger, which he made into a documentary, 3212 Un-Redacted. He is also a former senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee and was working on a book about the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Meek’s last article from ABC, according to his author page, is from April 14, about the trial of one of the “ISIS Beatles.” His last post on social media, responding to a tweet talking about U.S. monitoring of Russian troop tactics, was posted on Twitter at 4:59 a.m. on April 27. His neighbor and eyewitness to the raid said that he saw the unmarked police vehicles “just before dawn,” meaning his last post was just moments before the raid and his disappearance.
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In the raid’s aftermath, Meek has made himself scarce. None of his Siena Park neighbors with whom Rolling Stone spoke have seen him since, with his apartment appearing to be vacant. Siena Park management declined to confirm that their longtime tenant was gone, citing “privacy policies.” Similarly, several ABC News colleagues — who are accustomed to unraveling mysteries and cracking investigative stories — tell Rolling Stone that they have no idea what happened to Meek.
“He fell off the face of the Earth,” says one. “And people asked, but no one knew the answer.”
An ABC representative told the Rolling Stone, “He resigned very abruptly and hasn’t worked for us for months.”
An FBI representative confirmed to the outlet that its agents were present at the ‘2300 block of Columbia Pike’ on the morning of 27 April, saying they were ‘conducting court-authorized law-enforcement activity’.
Ongoing Investigation
The representative added: “The FBI cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.” his possession of classified documents,” his lawyer, Eugene Gorokhov, 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 [Department of Justice] promptly investigates the source of this leak.
Journalist Tatiana Siegel explains: “If the raid was for Meek’s records, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco would have had to give her blessing; a new policy enacted last year prohibits federal prosecutors from seizing journalists’ documents. Any exception requires the deputy AG’s approval.”
Siegel added that Gabe Rottman at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said there hadn’t been a case since January 2021, to his knowledge.
In the aftermath of the FBI visit, Meek has made himself ‘scarce’, Siegel continued, adding that none of the neighbours at his Siena Park apartment block have seen him since, and that his home appears to be vacant.
Citing ‘privacy policies’, Siena Park management declined to confirm that Meek had gone, while phone calls to Meek’s family went ‘unanswered’.
aspokesperson for Disney-owned ABC News said he had left ‘abruptly’, and one colleague at ABC News said he ‘fell off the face of the Earth’.
The spokesperson said: “He resigned very abruptly and hasn’t worked for us for months.”
Sources said federal agents allegedly found ‘classified information’ on Meek’s laptop during the raid, but this has not been confirmed.
Meek’s attorney told Rolling Stone: “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.”
The attorney added: “We hope that the DOJ [Department of Justice] promptly investigates the source of this leak.”
The tweet had been in response to another post linking a news article about the Ukraine-Russia war, and the information US military has supposedly gained since the invasion.
The tweet Meek reshared said: “Actually, it started long time ago… we learned this between 2014-2022. Not just now. It was an 8 year lab experiment on Russian TTPs. On EW. On everything. This is why Ukrainians (with our advise/assist) r doing so well. Ask those in IC and UW communities. We learned a s**t ton.”