It’s Been Six Months Since The FBI Raided James Gordon Meek’s House, And He’s Still Missing

Getting raided by the F.B.I. seems to be the hot new trend this year. Some live to complain about it, others go missing.

Meet James Gordon Meek. The F.B.I. raided his Arlington, Virginia, apartment on April 27. That morning, he replied to a Twitter post about the Russia-Ukraine crisis with one word – “facts.” No one has heard from him in the 6-months since.

So how does a 52-year-old, Emmy Award-winning ABC journalist seemingly disappear without a trace? No one is quite sure what happened and the government is remaining tight-lipped.

The F.B.I won’t confirm or comment on the raid, saying only that a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” took place on the block where he lived. Rolling Stone originally broke the story and implied it was related to classified documents Meek had acquired.

The Department of Justice gave a vague response to The Daily Beast. Dena Iverson from the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs said that “the Department strictly adheres to the Attorney General’s July 2021 memorandum.” That memo prohibits federal investigators from taking journalists’ records without approval from the deputy attorney general. So if the raid occurred, and if it did involve Meek’s work as a journalist, the order would have to come from within the top brass of the Biden administration.

Those close to Meek seem to be unsure of what happened to him as well. He resigned from his job on the day of the raid. Friends say he told them he quit for personal reasons and to “save colleagues and the company any embarrassment.”

According to The Daily Beast, even though some major outlets have looked into Meek’s disappearance, ABC hasn’t bothered to investigate. ABC has also declined to elaborate on his resignation, saying they “don’t comment or report on speculation.”

Neighbors haven’t seen him and witnesses claim his apartment is vacant. Some friends say Meek is living with his mother while a former co-worker has lamented that Meek just “fell off the face of the earth.”

In the spring, Meek told the co-author of his upcoming book he needed to withdraw from the project due to personal issues. Meek is no longer listed on the book’s promotional materials.

 Meek’s lawyer swiftly responded to rumors that the raid regarded classified documents, saying, “Mr. Meek is unaware of what allegations anonymous sources are making about his possession of classified documents.”

His lawyer accused the Department of Justice of leaking information about his client during an ongoing investigation, calling it, “highly inappropriate, and illegal.” However, he did not say what happened to Meek in the last 6-months.

What we do know is that he was skilled in embarrassing the government. He exposed an alleged cover-up of a friendly fire death in Iraq, produced a Hulu documentary about a failed mission in Niger, and was a senior investigator for the House Homeland Security Committee.

While the vanishing of Meek is a mystery, the reputation of the F.B.I. is well-known. Will this go down as a conspiracy theory, a runaway journalist, or fake news? Only time will … not the government.