James Gordon Meek (born August 24, 1969) is an American former

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

senior producer and senior counter-terrorism advisor to the U.S.

House Committee on Homeland Security The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Its responsibilities include U.S. security legislation and oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Role of the committ ...

. During his time as a journalist, Meek held prominent positions covering the justice system, military, and foreign intelligence desks. In 2022, his home was raided by the FBI, in what was later revealed to be an investigation into child pornography. In 2023, Meek was arrested on charges of transportation and possession of child pornography. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Career

His father, John Martin Meek, had been a lobbyist and speechwriter for

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

and

Bobby Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yor ...

. Meek initially wrote political articles for the CD-ROM magazine ''Blender'', leading to 1995 accreditation with the Periodical Press Galleries.Society of Professional Journalists
Credentialing for Online Journalists
October 2000 Meek and his partner Mike Rosenberg formed the "irreverent" ''Gridlock'' webzine to apply for accreditation to the Senate Periodical Press Gallery but were denied as the webzine could not be the pair's primary source of income. In August 1996, both men were "shown the door" by ''Blender'' for a "poor attitude". Meek was the last person to interview

William Colby William Egan Colby (January 4, 1920 – May 6, 1996) was an American intelligence officer who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from September 1973 to January 1976. During World War II, Colby served with the Office of Strat ...

, for a story on the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...

, as the former

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director was found dead days later. Meek and Rosenberg then founded "Digital Culture Interactive News", which wrote stories about their ''Gridlock'' webzine, and sent submissions to ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

''. Meek was thanked in the EPA director's 2000 book on the subject of

Public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

. Meek wrote extensively on the death of Dave Sharrett II, whose father had taught Meek at Langley High School. Meek wrote of his "deep friendship" with the family of Caitlan Coleman, and is a personal friend of constitutional lawyer

Mark Zaid Mark S. Zaid (born 1967) is an American attorney,criminal with a practice focused on national security law,constitutional claims, and government accountability. In 1998 he founded the James Madison Project, an organization dedicated to reducin ...

From 2005 to 2006, Meek helped

Peter Bergen Peter Lampert Bergen (born December 12, 1962) is an American journalist, documentary producer, historian, and author, best known for his work on national security and counterterrorism. He has written or edited ten books—three of which were ...

and Bergen's wife, Tresha Mabile, release the best-selling book ''

The Osama bin Laden I Know Peter Bergen's ''The Osama bin Laden I Know'' () is a book published in 2006. It is a comprehensive collection of personal accounts by people who met Osama bin Laden or worked with him at various stages of his terrorist career. Summary Peter Ber ...

''. Legal author

Stuart Taylor Jr. Stuart Taylor Jr. (born 1948) is an American journalist, author, and lawyer. He has served as a fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was a reporter for the ''Baltimore Sun'' from 1971 to 1974; ''The New York Times'' from 1980 to 1988, covering ...

accused Meek of "

classist Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of ...

" coverage falsely suggesting guilt of the wrongly-accused defendants in the 2006

Duke lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse rape hoax was a widely reported 2006 criminal case hoax in Durham, North Carolina, United States, in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Ev ...

. In 2011, Meek was hired as a senior counter-terrorism investigator for the

, although he was unsure why Congressman Peter King had spontaneously offered him the position as he had not sought any such employment—though Meek noted he'd written widely on terrorism and his third cousin's wife had been killed in the 1995

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

. In 2013, Meek was hired as a senior investigative producer for

' ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of visual perception, vision, but technically rates an animal's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity depends on optical and neural factors. Optical factors of the eye ...

'', ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'', ''

ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...

'' and ''

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'' programming from 2013 to 2022. In 2017 Meek wrote an article about Russian disinformation in the Syrian war wherein he referred to "the debunked

Pizzagate "Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle, falsely claiming that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had discovered a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democra ...

conspiracy theory", which drew viral attention with exaggerated suggestions Meek had said much more, after his guilty plea to judge Claude Hilton. Meek appeared as a panelist, together with Ewen and Coleman, at the 2021 Double Exposure Film Festival. According to ''

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

'', although he never served in the military, he chose to dress in "typical military-style getup" .

Child pornography prosecution

In 2021, Meek was investigated by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

for crimes related to child pornography. He was charged with transporting child pornography in February of the following year. In July 2023, he pleaded guilty to one count of distribution and another of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to six years in prison in September.

References

External links

United States v. Meek
on PACER/

RECAP Recap may refer to: * Retread a resurfaced tire * Recap sequence * Dividend recapitalization * RECAP, archiving software for United States court documents *'' The Recap'' album See also * Summary (disambiguation) {{disambig ...

* * *
FBI Affidavit
circumstances surrounding arrest {{DEFAULTSORT:Meek, James Gordon 1969 births Living people ABC News people American male journalists American people convicted of child pornography offenses American sex offenders New York Daily News people 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers