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The ‘disappearance’ of a former ABC News producer six months ago may not be as mysterious as it initially seemed, according to a new report – with sources saying the veteran journalist quit his job to avoid embarrassment for the network, left his home, and is now living with his mother.
James Gordon Meek, 52, was last week reported by Rolling Stone to have vanished.
They said he ‘abruptly’ left his job at the news network; withdrew from the book he was co-authoring about Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan; and has kept a low profile ever since.
Online, people speculated that Meek’s work with classified documents was behind the raid.
‘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,’ the magazine reported.
Yet on Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Meek had not disappeared, but was living with his mother.
James Gordon Meek, 52, left the spotlight in April. Last week Rolling Stone reported that the circumstances were suspicious, but on Monday The Daily Beast said there was little evidence of a conspiracy
Meek has not been seen since April: friends told The Daily Beast he is living with his mother
The Siena Apartments in Arlington, Virginia, where Meek was living. He has not been seen there for months and on Monday it was reported he is now living with his mother
Meek’s apartment building, where he lived until April in Arlington, Virginia
The site reported that Meek resigned from ABC News – which he had joined in April 2013, after working at the New York Daily News – on April 27.
He said his resignation was due to ‘personal reasons’ and told friends it was to ‘save colleagues and the company any embarrassment.’
The FBI raid on his apartment was the same day.
The FBI refused to comment on their raid on his Arlington, Virginia home, but the Justice Department said it was not connected to his work.
‘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 compulsory process with regards to members of the news media acting within the scope of newsgathering activities,’ said Dena Iverson, principal deputy director in the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs.
ABC News has not investigated Meeks’ ‘disappearance’, the Daily Beast pointed out.
A spokesman for ABC News told DailyMail.com last week that Meek resigned ‘abruptly’ – but they would not be drawn on the details of his departure.
‘He resigned very abruptly and hasn’t worked for us for months,’ they said.
Meek worked at ABC for nine years before he suddenly resigned.
Meek is pictured in a photo from his Twitter account – which has been inactive since April
The journalist had made a documentary about the U.S. army’s activities in Niger
In the past, he had also served as a senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee.
He had also produced a documentary about a separate US military mission in Niger, which he believed exposed a cover-up.
Meek was writing this book with Lt. Col. Scott Mann but he withdrew from the project in spring, citing personal issues. It was around the same time as his home was raided
Around the same time as the raid on his home, Meek also withdrew from the book about Afghanistan which he had been co-writing with Lt. Col. Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret.
The book was published in August with only Lt. Col. Mann listed as the author.
A previous description of the book included a line about Meek being contacted by a Special Forces operator overseas.
It read: ‘In April, ABC News correspondent James Gordon Meek got an urgent call from a Special Forces operator serving overseas.’
Now, promotional text for the book has no mention of his name.
Instead, the blurb reads: ‘In April, an urgent call was placed from a Special Forces operator serving overseas.’
Meek has not commented on the saga.
His last tweets were on April 27 – the day of his resignation and the raid.
Meek’s final tweet on April 27, the morning of the raid, was about how the US was helping Ukraine in the war against Russia
Meek had also been investigating the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
Eugene Gorokhov, Meek’s attorney, said he knew nothing of any classified documents, but that if Meek did possess them it would have been within the scope of his career as a journalist investigating national security and military operations.
‘Mr Meek is unaware of what allegations anonymous sources are making about his possession of classified documents,’ he said.
‘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.’
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