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Former ABC News Investigative Reporter Is Facing Federal Child Pornography Charges
Investigators said they discovered sexually explicit images and videos on James Gordon Meek's phone, computer and external hard drive and uncovered evidence that the former ABC News reporter had solicited photos from a minor on Snapchat.
Warning: The following story contains disturbing allegations regarding child sexual abuse.
Former ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek is facing federal child pornography charges after authorities say they discovered graphic images and video depicting child sexual abuse on his devices.
The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Meek has been charged with transportation of child pornography.
The investigation into the 53-year-old began after investigators received a lead from Dropbox in March of 2021 that one of the digital storage program’s users had uploaded five videos of child pornography, according to a complaint affidavit.
The username associated with the account was “James Meek” and authorities were ultimately able to track the IP address to Meek’s residence in Arlington, Virginia, investigators allege.
After securing a search warrant, investigators recovered an iPhone 8 from his home on April 27, 2022 that allegedly contained chat conversations under the username “Pawny4” where “participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children,” according to the affidavit.
“In two of those conversations, Pawny4 received and distributed child pornography image and video files through Kik, an internet-based messaging platform,” authorities said.
In one disturbing conversation in February of 2020, Pawny4 allegedly asked a fellow user, “Have you ever raped a toddler girl?"
In a chat with another user, authorities said Pawny4 discussed wanting to impregnate a 21-year-old woman “so that they could sexually abuse their child together” and sent other sexually explicit images.
Along with the explicit chats, investigators allegedly uncovered approximately 100 additional images “depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct” on the phone and found other explicit images on an external hard drive and computer recovered from the residence, authorities said.
Investigators also found evidence suggesting that Meek had allegedly engaged in a Snapchat conversation with a minor girl, ultimately convincing the girl to send sexually explicit images of herself, according to the affidavit.
Authorities said they also found “significant evidence” that Meek had engaged directly or attempted to engage with minors online in other platforms as well.
In some conversations, investigators alleged he “posed as a minor female” to communicate with minors on Instagram and solicit photos from them.
The Emmy-winning journalist served as a national security investigative reporter for ABC News before he abruptly resigned after the search warrant was served on his home, according to Rolling Stone.
Meek — who also once worked as a former senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee — made a name for himself as a tough investigative reporter. Meek was the first to report on the Army’s coverup of the death of Pfc. Dave Sharrett II in Iraq and broke the story on the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Simon And Schuster.
His work to expose the 2017 coverup of the deaths of four U.S. special forces soldiers in Africa served as the basis for the Hulu documentary “3212 Un-Redacted.”
Meek has yet to publicly comment on the accusations against him, according to NBC News.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of at least five years behind bars and a possible maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, federal authorities said.
