Sealing the courtroom
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Sealing the courtroom is John Kiriakou's account of what happens physically when the government invokes the Classified Information Procedures Act in a national security prosecution, a procedure he went through in his own case and which he expected Julian Assange to face.

His overall verdict is split. "so they're going to invoke something called sipa the classified information protection act uh some of it is silly some of it is important."

The silly part

What Kiriakou classes as silly is the hardening of the room itself. "the silly stuff is um they're going to physically seal the courtroom with duct tape and plastic sheeting right they'll take these big plastic sheets like tarps and they'll they'll put it over the um the uh windows and and seal the windows off so that the russians can't beam a laser at the at the window and read the vibrations and and hear what's going on in the courtroom."

The treatment extends to the entrances and the acoustics. "uh they duct tape around the uh the door they play white no white noise in the vestibule so nobody outside can hear what's going on inside the courtroom."

The clearing

The second measure is procedural rather than physical, and is triggered by anticipation rather than by anything actually said. Whenever the court thinks "that someone might mention something that maybe could possibly be classified," two things happen.

The first is that the room empties. "one they clear the courtroom so the only people allowed in the courtroom are the judge the jury the bailiff the clerk the lawyers and the defendant that's it."

The second goes further, and is the point at which Kiriakou stops calling the procedure silly: "and then even the jury's not allowed to hear the classified information." What is substituted for the words themselves is described in the swimming pool substitution.

What he asks of the public

Kiriakou's conclusion is not procedural but practical. Because the proceedings are closed, the only pressure available is outside the building: "it's up to us to be there in that courtroom every day till they throw us out when they invoke sipa we need to be out in front."

See also

- The CIPA hearing in Kiriakou's case
- The Swimming Pool Substitution
- The jury consultant's advice
- Eastern District of Virginia
