An ABC News investigative reporter who has been writing a book about the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan has not been seen since his home was raided by the FBI six months ago.
The FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid on the home of investigative reporter James Gordon Meekin April after anonymous allegations that he was in possession of classified material.
Meekshasn’t been seen since. According to an exclusive report in Rolling Stone, sources familiar with the matter said Meeks was the target of a federal investigation and FBI agents reportedly found classified information on his laptop during the raid.
FBI Raids Star ABC News Producer James Gordon Meek’s Home – Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone reported that Meeks has not been seen by any of his neighbors since the April raid on his upscale Arlington, Virginia apartment. One neighbor told the outlet that Meeks “fell off the face of the Earth.”
The neighbor had asked around, but nobody knew where he went. A spokesperson with ABC News told Rolling Stone that Meeks, who was also a former senior counterterrorism advisor and investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee, “resigned very abruptly” and “hasn’t worked for us for months.”
Meeks’ attorney, Eugene Gorokhov, alleged that the anonymous allegations “appear to come from a source inside the government,” which he called “troubling.” He said it is illegal for government employees to leak information about an ongoing investigation.
While it is unclear what story Meeks would’ve been working on that could’ve prompted the FBI raid, Rolling Stone noted that what makes this situation “even stranger” is that Meeks was completing 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.”
Shortly after the Rolling Stone report hit, The Daily Beast’s media column Confider said that ABC News sources “poured cold water” on the article’s claim that Meek was targeted by the FBI for his reporting.
FBI Raid on ABC News Producer James Gordon Meek Wasn’t Tied to His Work (thedailybeast.com)
One “insider” told Confider that if the FBI was looking for classified documents related to Meek’s reporting, the first call Meeks would have made was to ABC’s attorneys.
