Disgraced Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon maintains that she is a victim of the growing row over the nomination of her husband Brett McGurk to be the next ambassador to Iraq, according to an email she recently sent to friends.
Chon resigned from the Journal this week after a series of leaked emails revealed that she had carried on a sexual affair with McGurk while he was serving as a senior Bush administration official in Iraq and she was stationed as a reporter.
BuzzFeed obtained the email sent by Chon to friends earlier today.
"I’ve never felt so vulnerable, so targeted and so exposed as I have in the last two weeks," Chon writes. "I feel like I have become collateral damage in this process. And, after witnessing all I have, I’m amazed that anyone would want to become a public official."
Chon also defends McGurk, whose judgment has been called into question since the saucy emails were released.
"Brett always turned to public service and went back to Iraq every time he was called," she writes. "Even now when people are saying horrible things about me and him, he still wants to serve."
The emails show a beautiful courtship, not a scandalous affair, Chon maintains.
"But underneath the half-truths and outright lies is a fairly simple tale of two people who met in Baghdad, fell in love, got engaged and later married," Chon writes. "In the process we formed a strong connection with Iraq, a place where we lost many friends."
Still, she admits to making mistakes.
"I made stupid mistakes four years ago in Iraq while working for the Wall Street Journal and for that, I’m also sorry," Chon writes. "I had to leave my job at a news organization I love and for that, I am heartbroken."
A Washington Free Beacon review of Chon’s journalism from the relevant time frame shows numerous instances in which Chon quoted a senior administration official who may or may not have been McGurk.