A racy trove of emails has cast a shadow on President Obama’s nominee for the next U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, as a series of sexually suggestive messages Brett McGurk exchanged with a Wall Street Journal reporter surfaced online last week amid his Senate confirmation hearing.
McGurk, working in Baghdad as a national security staffer for President George W. Bush, met Gina Chon in June of 2008 as she was on assignment for the Journal.
The pair quickly began sending flirtatious emails back and forth, with Chon suggesting they have dinner “without public affairs people, if you know what I mean.” According to their emails McGurk first came to Chon’s residence “to hook up” on June 23.
McGurk, who married his wife in 2006, ultimately divorced her and married Chon.