(Newser)
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A Wall Street Journal reporter has resigned after flirty emails were published online exposing an affair with an American official she was covering in Iraq. Gina Chon had a 2008 affair with Brett McGurk, who's currently President Obama's nominee for US ambassador to Iraq. Both McGurk and Chon left their spouses and recently married each other, according to the Washington Post. Chon "agreed to resign after acknowledging that while based in Iraq she violated the Dow Jones Code of Conduct by sharing certain unpublished news articles with Brett McGurk, then a member of the US National Security Council in Iraq," the Wall Street Journal said in a statement yesterday.
While Chon kept her affair hidden from her editor, the newspaper, "found no evidence that her coverage was tainted by her relationship," added the statement. News of the affair is burning up the Internet just as McGurk is in the middle of his confirmation hearings. The couple's emails—which jokingly referred to trading sexual favors for access—were anonymously posted online on several sites. Senate Republicans are questioning McGurk's judgment and fitness for the ambassador post in light of the emails. The emails are "out there for everybody to see," said a State Department spokeswoman, who continued to maintain that McGurk is “uniquely qualified to serve as our ambassador" in Iraq.
