Disgraced ex-ABC News senior producer James Gordon Meek is indicted on three child pornography counts – nearly one year after FBI raided his Arlington, Virginia home – for evidence.
Meek, 53, once an Emmy-winning producer, was formally charged this week with transporting images of child pornography, according to the Justice Department.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Meek’s predatory behavior was first exposed when Dropbox alerted authorities to child porn stored in his account in March 2021, The New York Post reported. The FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force led the investigation.
In April 27, 2022, DOJ agents then raided his penthouse apartment in which they seized a laptop, external hard drive, and multiple iPhones that reportedly contained child porn. Shortly after, he abruptly resigned from the network.
The child pornography charges come nearly two months after his January 31 arrest. He is scheduled to be arraigned on April 14, as per docket calendar.
James Meek, 53, once an Emmy-winning producer, was formally charged on three child pornography counts – nearly a year after FBI raided his home for evidence
Meek pictured in a photo from his Twitter account- which is no longer active
Meek built his eputation at the New York Daily News, where his five-year investigation forced military brass to admit that Army Private First Class David Sharrett II was shot by his own commanding officer
Several of Meek’s devices allegedly contained images depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and multiple chat conversations with users engaged in sexually explicit conversations where the participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children, according to the DOJ release.
In two of those conversations, a username allegedly associated with Meek received and distributed child sexual abuse materials through an internet-based messaging platform, as per the DOJ.
Following the raid, the department obtained a search warrant for Meek’s iCloud account on November 14. They contained backups of two of his devices and included a screenshot of one of the explicit discussions.
They also uncovered an Apple laptop that contained ‘approximately 90 images and videos of child pornography.’
Snapchat and Instagram accounts were also uncovered that contained conversations and images of unidentified females alleged to be minors.
Meek had been known for his trailblazing journalism, which has exposed shocking military cover-ups, friendly fire deaths, and foiled terror plots.
DailyMail.com spotted in late October at his elderly mom’s townhouse in McLean, Virginia, 15 minutes outside Washington, D.C.
The divorced dad-of-two appeared to be keeping a low profile- parking his Chevy SUV several blocks from the property and ignoring questions as he slipped through a back door.
He had been wearing his trademark military-style getup, including an army field jacket with an Afghan flag patch, backpack, aviator shades, and a keffiyeh scarf – a nod to Meek’s celebrated dispatches from the frontline in Afghanistan.
In December, it was revealed the DOJ was charging the then ‘missing’ Emmy Award-winning, ABC producer, nearly eight months after the FBI raided his home and took several of his electronic devices.
Rolling Stone reported that an indictment was being prepared in connection to the pre-dawn raid and that nearly a dozen electronic devices had been taken from Meek’s home.
‘Independent observers believe the raid is among the first – and quite possibly, the first – to be carried out on a journalist by the Biden administration,’ read the bombshell report in Rolling Stone.
Meek, 53, has been keeping a low profile and has been AWOL for the past several months, after a mysterious FBI raid at his Siena Park apartment in Arlington, Virginia
Meeks was a 2022 Foley Freedom Awardees
The magazine alleged that agents spent ten minutes inside Meek’s top-floor pad and found a laptop containing classified information, citing ‘sources familiar with the matter’ – but friends and former colleagues of the popular, well-regarded reporter say that doesn’t add up.
They point out that ABC has not made any legal intervention, nor voiced its support for the star correspondent, who is said to have cited ‘personal reasons’ for abruptly quitting after nine successful years at the alphabet network.
f he did have anything like that, classified documents or similar materials, that would presumably be for a story he was working on,’ said a former colleague.
‘This is a guy who has done a lot of good in the world. ABC would be firmly in his corner if it was for legitimate journalism. None of it adds up.’
Dena Iverson, principal deputy director in the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, released a statement months ago insisting that agents had acted lawfully.
‘While the department cannot speak to any specific case or activity, the Department strictly adheres to the Attorney General’s July 2021 memorandum prohibiting the use of the compulsory process with regards to members of the news media acting within the scope of newsgathering activities,’ she told the Daily Beast.
The policy was brought in last year by the Biden administration to prohibit the feds from seizing materials from reporters without authorization from the deputy attorney general.
The Department of Justice did not respond to multiple emails from DailyMail.com asking for an update on Meek’s case.
Previous presidents including Trump and Obama had been accused of secretly targeting journalists and their sources.
There are, however, several exceptions included in the policy, such as when a journalist is suspected of working for a foreign power or a terror group.
Meek’s apartment building, where he lived until April in Arlington, Virginia
Eugene Gorokhov, Meek’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
In earlier remarks, reported by Rolling Stone, he said: ‘Mr Meek is 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 Mr. Meek’s long career as an investigative journalist covering government wrongdoing.
‘Press inquiries on this issue are troubling for a different reason: they appear to be based on statements from a source inside the government.
‘It is highly inappropriate, and illegal, for individuals in the government to leak information about an ongoing investigation.’
by Ruth Bashinsky
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