Gina Chon, the reporter now married to Iraq ambassador nominee Brett McGurk, has resigned from the Wall Street Journal after e-mails from the couple’s overseas affair leaked online. According to a statement released by the paper, Chon acknowledged “that while based in Iraq she violated the Dow Jones Code of Conduct by sharing certain unpublished news articles with [McGurk], then a member of the U.S. National Security Council in Iraq.” At the time, McGurk was reportedly married to someone else, but wasn’t shy messaging Chon about his “blue balls” from their nights together, mixed in with official business and more bad flirting. Chon did not disclose her “personal relationship” with McGurk to her editors, but the Journal assures they’ve “found no evidence that her coverage was tainted” by extracurricular activities.
McGurk’s confirmation process, on the other hand, has already been sullied by the uncomfortable e-mails, as well as “unconfirmed allegations that McGurk was caught on video engaging in improper sexual behavior on the roof of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace in 2004,” Foreign Policy reports. Those rumors, which first surfaced without naming names, are giving lawmakers extra pause.
“Prior to these e-mail revelations, I had reservations about confirming Brett McGurk as ambassador to Iraq,” Republican Senator James Risch said of Obama’s nomination. “Now that additional issues have been raised, more information will be needed and I reserve final judgment until all the facts are brought to light.” McGurk has to be hoping those revelations don’t come via videotape.
