This reporting is featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
It turns out that notorious gadfly Simon Ateba isn’t the only journalist who’s caused headaches for the White House Correspondents Association with over-the-top escapades.
Multiple complaints have been made over the years about freelance photographer William Moon taking candid and inappropriate photos of female reporters and staffers at the White House, sometimes when they were exiting the restroom, several people familiar with the situation told Confider.
Moon, who went viral in 2020 for taking a famously unflattering photo of Donald Trump, would allegedly post up in a breakroom and then photograph women exiting a nearby bathroom, multiple sources told us. He then posted the images on his social-media accounts with official-sounding usernames like @photowhitehouse or @thewhitehousephotos.
The photographer’s antics spanned across both the Trump and Biden administrations, prompting multiple women to complain to the White House press office and demand he remove the photos from his account, sources said. Eventually, a WHCA board member was seen confronting Moon about his behavior, telling the photographer in no uncertain terms he was prohibited from hanging out near the restroom to snap pics. (The board member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the encounter.)
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Moon also came under fire last year for twice publicly sharing off-record planning emails on his Twitter account, resulting in the board asking the press office to remove him from the mailing list.
An official familiar with the situation confirmed that Moon had been warned by the White House about his behavior, and also that he was removed from the mailing list last year.
Additionally, sources noted that Moon no longer has a “hard pass” to the White House—though his press credentials were not revoked by the press office. Instead, he may have just let it lapse and never reapplied. The Biden administration has sought to toughen the rules for hard passes, but has also been keen on avoiding the appearance of directly punishing White House journos.
Moon hadn’t been seen on White House grounds in the past six months—until Wednesday, when he showed up to witness the South Korean president’s visit with Biden. Sources noted that Moon, now sporting a lengthy beard, obtained a temporary day pass to enter the complex. The photographer marked the occasion by posting a number of pictures on social media, including candid snaps of women and a selfie with National Security Council flack John Kirby.
Moon’s re-emergence came after Confider emailed multiple requests for comment to which he never responded. The White House press office declined to comment.
