A journalist is believed to have gone missing after the FBI raided his home – reportedly to seize classified documents.
Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter James Gordon Meek, 52, 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.
One well-known documentary that meek had been involved in was 2021 film 3212 Un-Redacted, which unravels the truth behind the deaths of four US Special Forces soldiers in Africa, alleging a cover-up at the highest levels of the Army.
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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’.
The representative added: “The FBI cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.”
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While Meek hasn’t been charged with a crime, some believe the raid is among the first – or possibly the first – to be carried out on a journalist by the Biden administration, with a federal magistrate judge in the Virginia Eastern District Court signing off on the search warrant the day before.
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.
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Citing ‘privacy policies’, Siena Park management declined to confirm that Meek had gone, while phone calls to Meek’s family went ‘unanswered’.
However, a spokesperson 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.”
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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.”
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Meek's last public statement came on Twitter just before 5:00am on 27 April, when he retweeted a post with a single word: "Facts."
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."
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Topics: US News
Jess Hardiman