The Sue Mi Terry case
=====================

Handed the story as his own territory, Kiriakou began by noting a detail he had forgotten until his producer supplied it: that Sue Mi Terry is the wife of Max Boot. 

The charge

Terry, he says, is "widely respected, providing analysis," and the case struck him as "a real stretch." 

The substance of Kiriakou's argument is about which statute was used. She was charged with multiple offences, he stresses, "not under the Espionage Act, but under the FARA Act, Foreign Agents Registration Act." What that means, in his rendering, is that "she forgot to fill out a form on the internet", and that this makes it a felony. 

The sentencing range and what it is worth

Kiriakou gives the nominal exposure: on a first FARA offence, zero to six months. He then argues that the number is not predictive, because "on FARA, the Justice Department doesn't care what it is." 

His illustration is Maria Butina, who was convicted of failing to file. Despite the same zero-to-six-month recommendation, Kiriakou says, she received eighteen months, and served it in solitary confinement. 

Who is driving it

Kiriakou's puzzlement is directed at his own former employer rather than at the prosecutors. "I don't know why the CIA is demanding that these charges be pursued," he says. "I think it's kind of nuts." 

He volunteers that he has no sympathy for Terry's husband, "I'm no friend of Max Boot's, I never", which he offers as evidence that the position is not a favour to an ally. 

Whether she did it

Asked directly whether he thinks she is guilty, Kiriakou does not say she is innocent. His answer is that "she may be guilty of, you know, laziness", and he returns immediately to the size of the offence: "the crime literally is failing to fill out a form on the internet." 

The comparison he and Rall reach for is the registration burden imposed on RT and Sputnik, which Kiriakou confirms required filing every single day.  Kiriakou then apologised to viewers and left the broadcast to reach a train. 

See also

- Maria Butina
- Espionage Act
- Tucker Carlson 2026 FARA referral
- The Sputnik shutdown
