Award-winning investigative reporter James Gordon Meek was authoring a new novel about the Biden administration’s calamitous military abandonment of Afghanistan, then the FBI raided his home and he hasn’t been seen since.
Meek, 52, had a thriving career at ABC News as an investigative reporter, where he has worked since 2013. He won an Emmy for covering hard hitting military and national security controversies, and recently produced Hulu documentary, “3212 Unredacted,” which exposed a U.S. military cover-up about the death of four Special Forces soldiers in Africa.
The Emmy-winning producer was wrapping up his novel, “Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan,” about a group of former Green Berets rescued 500 Afghans from Kabul during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before Meek, a former senior investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee, could complete the book, the FBI raided his Arlington, Virginia apartment on April 27, and he was never seen by colleagues or neighbors again.
According to an investigative report by Rolling Stone on Tuesday, a source alleged that the law enforcement agency found classified material on his computer during the pre-dawn search of his luxury apartment.
Meek has seemingly disappeared after the government barged into his life. A neighbor said that Meek “fell off the face of the Earth,” after the incursion. ABC News told Rolling Stone that the former counter-terrorism advisor “resigned very abruptly” and hasn’t worked for the network in months.
His writing partner, former Green Beret, Lt. Col. Scott Mann, recalled that Meek withdrew from the project in the Spring over “serious personal issues” and was “really distraught” at the time.
Meek bashed the FBI on Twitter days before the raid on his home, ironically it was about the disappearance of Marine Corps veteran and American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
“I was surprised to learn that only one FBI agent was still assigned to Austin Tice’s case and chasing old, dead-end leads,” he tweeted on April 20. “The agent had carried a Bureau shield for less time than Austin had been missing in Syria.”
His final social media post was written in the early morning hours on the same day his apartment was raided. He responded to retired CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulus’ take on Ukraine’s resilience against Russia with a single word.
Meek’s attorney, Eugene Gorokhov, said his client was “unaware of what allegations anonymous sources are making about his possession of classified documents.”
“If such documents exist, as claimed, this would be within the scope of his long career as an investigative journalist covering government wrongdoing,” he continued.
Gorokhov said the allegations were “troubling,” because they seem to be coming from a government source.
“It is highly inappropriate, and illegal, for individuals in the government to leak information about an ongoing investigation,” he concluded. “We hope that the promptly investigates the source of this leak.”
According to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an unknown source reported that Meek “may have” had child pornography on his home computer.
“If so, I hope he’s locked up. This is exactly what the FBI should be doing, going after child predators instead of political enemies and parents at school board meetings,” she tweeted on Wednesday.
Twitter critics were quick to point out that the theory had holes. “If James Gordon Meek had child pornography on his laptop why hasn’t he been charged?” Someone questioned. “The raid was in April…why wasn’t he immediately arrested? Slam dunk case if they have his laptop! What is going on here?? Bizarre.”
“Or was it planted by them because of his story?” Wrote another.