A judge expressed concern that James Meek, a former investigative journalist for ABC News, was “grooming” minors in conversations online.
At a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. said he was concerned about allegations in the criminal complaint that Meek was starting “the grooming process” in online conversations with minors.
“A minor victim told law enforcement that the defendant pressured her to send pictures depicting sexually explicit conduct,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell wrote in a filing Saturday. “Law enforcement found 11 images of this minor on the defendant’s phone, including nude images with her breasts and pubic region exposed.”Defense attorney Eugene Gorokhov wrote in a filing Saturday that “there is no allegation whatsoever that Mr.
Meek since 2013 had covered wars, terrorism and major crimes as a senior investigative producer for ABC News in Washington, winning an Emmy in 2017. He previously worked as an adviser for the House Homeland Security Committee, “where he advised top congressional leaders and held a top-secret clearance,” according to his attorney.
Alston said that Meek has known about the FBI search of his apartment in Arlington for nine months and that “there’s been no suggestion that he’s tried to flee.” M.E. “Spike” Bowman, a retired chief of the National Security Law Unit of the FBI, and other former law enforcement officials wrote letters to the court on Meek’s behalf.“I can’t say that James and I were ever BFFs but we were and are friends still,” Bowman wrote.
The judge credited Meek during the hearing for his “heroic” work as a journalist who investigated U.S. service members’ unsolved deaths at war and gave “closure” to their families. But he said he was concerned about allegations that Meek was beginning to groom minors. “Even heroic people can lose their way,” Alston said.
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