Former ABC News journalist James Gordon Meek was arrested and accused of possessing child pornography, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Meek, a 53-year-old resident of Arlington, Virginia, was taken into custody Tuesday night and was charged with transportation of child pornography, officials said.
If convicted, Meek could face a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years behind bars, authorities said.
Meek abruptly resigned from ABC last year following a raid of his home in April.
The investigation began in March 2021 when Dropbox filed a tip with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, claiming a user uploaded videos with its service that "were later confirmed by law enforcement to contain child pornography," according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Investigators traced the account, with the user name "James Meek," to the suspect's home in Arlington, the complaint alleged.
"Meek’s devices allegedly contained images depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and multiple chat conversations with users engaged in sexually explicit conversations where the participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children," according to a Justice Department statement.
Meek allegedly used social media platforms to chat online with minors whom he successfully urged to send him explicit images of themselves, authorities said.
Investigators recovered an external hard drive of the suspect with "58 images and videos of child pornography" and an iPhone 6 in Meek's bedroom with "approximately 34 images and videos of suspected child pornography," according to the complaint.
Meek or a representative for him could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday afternoon at several publicly listed phone numbers for him.
