rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/fbi-raid-abc-news_producer-1234613619

wild

" Outside his Arlington, Virginia, apartment, a surreal scene was unfolding, and his storied career was about to come crashing down. Meek’s tweet marked the last time he’s posted on the social media platform.

The first thing Meek’s neighbor John Antonelli noticed that morning was the black utility vehicle with blacked out windows blocking traffic in both directions on Columbia Pike. It was just before dawn on that brisk April day, and self-described police-vehicle historian Antonelli was about to grab a coffee at a Starbucks before embarking on his daily three-mile walk. He inched closer to get a better vantage, when he saw an olive-green Lenco BearCat G2, an armored tactical vehicle often employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other law-enforcement agencies. A few Arlington County cruisers surrounded the jaw-dropping scene, but all of the other vehicles were unmarked, including the BearCat. Antonelli counted at least 10 heavily armed personnel in the group. None bore anything identifying which agency was conducting the raid. After just 10 minutes, the operation inside the Siena Park apartment complex — a six-story, upscale building for D.C. professionals, with rents fetching about $2,000 to $3,000 a month — was over.

“They didn’t stick around. They took off pretty quickly and headed west on Columbia Pike towards Fairfax County,” Antonelli recalls. “Most people seeing that green vehicle would think it’s some kind of tank. But I knew it was the Lenco BearCat. That vehicle is designed to be jumped out of so they can do a raid in that kind of time. It can return fire if they’re being fired upon.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter say Meek was the target of an FBI raid at the Siena Park apartments, where he had been living on the top floor for more than a decade. An FBI representative told Rolling Stone its agents were present on the morning of April 27 “at the 2300 block of Columbia Pike, Arlington, Virginia, conducting court-authorized law-enforcement activity. The FBI cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.”

Meek has been charged with no crime. But independent observers believe the raid is among the first — and quite possibly, the first — to be carried out on a journalist by the Biden administration. A federal magistrate judge in the Virginia Eastern District Court signed off on the search warrant the day before the raid. If the raid was for Meek’s records, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco would have had to give her blessing; a new policy enacted last year prohibits federal prosecutors from seizing journalists’ documents. Any exception requires the deputy AG’s approval. (Gabe Rottman at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says, “To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a case since January 2021.”)

In the raid’s aftermath, Meek, who frequently collaborated with ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, has made himself scarce. None of his Siena Park neighbors with whom Rolling Stone spoke have seen him since, with his apartment appearing to be vacant. Siena Park management declined to confirm that their longtime tenant was gone, citing “privacy policies.” Similarly, several ABC News colleagues — who are accustomed to unraveling mysteries and cracking investigative stories — tell Rolling Stone that they have no idea what happened to Meek.

“He fell off the face of the Earth,” says one. “And people asked, but no one knew the answer.”

An ABC representative tells Rolling Stone, “He resigned very abruptly and hasn’t worked for us for months.”"

''If da feds watchin I'm in hoppin in that Phantom and going ghost''

@FBI

Bb but first amendment

This is typical autocratic boolshit. If your political structure has no actual way to make sure there is no abuse of power by those at the top of the bureaucratic system, then you ain’t doing it right

its crazy that they just disappeared a prominent journalist like that

So we china now?

Does his family and lawyer know where he is?

They’re asking neighbours and colleagues but them not knowing where he is isn’t damning evidence.

Wtf

Yea all super power countries are pretty much like this, russia too

been

patriot act in action

NOW? this country was BUILT on genocide and slavery

China will never be as inherently evil as this country

You were so close.

👁️

How so

good find yeah he gone

trueanon-tier reach

i don’t think the feds would raid this guy for a documentary he made five years ago now

trump would’ve gotten his ass already

Been been gone since April and nobody gaf till now? lol

implying the U.S is the only “inherently evil” state built on structural hierarchy, genocide of ethnic minorities and slavery is funny

especially since the CCP does implicitly claim continuation between the old empire and itself in its policies

i just see the U.S as exceptionally good at modern statecraft and is able to do what other past empires did much more efficiently and even “rivals” like China and Russia take inspiration in their own projects

it's more about pattern of behavior, if he's looking into highly sensitive matters related to government cover-ups on a regular basis who knows what other productions he was working on

China been had genocide and slavery too you buffoon

How did I imply that the US was the only one? The US is simply the most exceptional example

yeah everyone with a brain knows Schmitt was right in this regard and the sovereign is fundamentally exempt from its own legal norms and that’s how it needs to be to function and enforce its own laws onto the populace