Former ABC Reporter Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Pornography

The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington on June 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

A reporter who was employed by ABC News has pleaded guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography.

James Gordon Meek, 53, pleaded guilty to using an online messaging platform to send and receive child porn, according to a plea agreement made public on July 21.

Mr. Meek acknowledged knowingly violating 18 U.S. Code § 2252, which bars transporting child porn “using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means including by computer or mails” and knowingly possessing or accessing child porn “with intent to view.”

Mr. Meek is slated to be sentenced on Sept. 29. He faces at least five years in prison, and up to 40 years behind bars. He could also be ordered to pay a fine of up to $500,000.

A lawyer for Mr. Meek did not respond to a request for comment.

An ABC spokeswoman did not return an inquiry.

Mr. Meek admitted to possessing child porn starting in 2020. A spokeswoman for ABC previously told The Epoch Times that the company employed Mr. Meek until 2022. Mr. Meek left the company in April 2022, according to the spokeswoman.

Mr. Meek’s last story for the outlet was published on April 14, 2022. He began working there in 2013 after a stint with the New York Daily News.

Mr. Meek has been held since his arrest in January 2023.

Investigation

Dropbox, a company that provides people with ways to store and share images and other materials, discovered child porn in an account in 2021 and alerted the FBI, according to court filings.

The account was linked to Mr. Meek through an investigation into IP addresses.

That led to the execution of a search warrant at Mr. Meek’s home in Arlington, Virginia, on April 27, 2022.

Authorities said they found an iPhone 8 that contained multiple conversations featuring a user with the name “Pawny4.” The discussions included sexually explicit language, with participants “express[ing] enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children,” according to charging documents. In two of the discussions, the user received and sent child porn images and videos.

Authorities found the number linked to the SIM card in the phone was the same number previously determined to be associated with Mr. Meek’s Dropbox and Gmail accounts.

The device was named “Bone Machine” and the host name was, in part, James G. Meek.

Travel to Carolinas

According to travel records acquired by authorities, Mr. Meek traveled to North Carolina by air in February 2020 and then went to South Carolina.

While in or around Rock Hill, South Carolina, he used his phone to engage in messages with two different people, Mr. Meek admitted in the plea deal. The conversations included the exchange of child porn, including at least one infant. According to an earlier filing, Mr. Meek also had similar discussions over Snapchat, and conversed with at least one minor.

Law enforcement officials identified the young girl, who told them Mr. Meek and other men contacted her on Snapchat and pressured her to provide sexually explicit pictures.

Mr. Meek took the phone with him as he traveled back to Virginia on a plane.

Mr. Meek’s computer, an external hard drive, and three other phones were also discovered to contain “multiple depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” Mr. Meek acknowledged.

According to an earlier filing: “The defendant knew that his electronic devices contained such depictions, that the individuals depicted were minors, and that at least some of the individuals depicted were prepubescent and minors under the age of 12,” prosecutors said in a statement with which Mr. Meek agreed in entering the guilty plea.

Before the plea, Mr. Meek’s lawyers had argued he should be released pending trial. They said he did not pose a danger to his community. They also said that he had lived with his mother since the raid on his home, that he had two daughters, and that he had no prior arrests or convictions.

The lawyers said that it was “important to note what is not alleged: there is no allegation whatsoever that Mr. Meek had any physical contact with any minor, and is no allegation that Mr. Meek even attempted to meet a minor for improper purposes,” adding, “This places Mr. Meek in an entirely different category from those individuals who actually engaged or attempted actual sexual abuse of minors.”

Safe Childhood

The FBI was assisted by U.S. Department of Justice attorneys and the Arlington County Police Department, with the case being brought as part of an operation called Project Safe Childhood, the department said.

The project is a nationwide effort to stem the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

It was launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice and is led by U.S. prosecutors and the agency’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

“Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims,” the department said.