Plato Kacheris
==============

Plato Kacheris was John Kiriakou's lead defence attorney, described by him as a "legendary legal figure in Washington."

His significance in Kiriakou's account is a piece of reading. On the day of his arraignment the government offered forty-five years, "take a plea, you do 45 years and you might live to meet your grandchildren", an offer Kiriakou, by his own description in a state of shock, answered with "I'm not doing 45 minutes. I didn't do anything wrong." Months later the offers began to fall: ten years on one Monday, eight on the Wednesday, five by the Friday.

Kacheris told him this was not how it works. "I've been practicing law in Washington for 53 years and I've never seen them come down in time. If you reject a plea, they always go up in time", ten becomes twelve, twelve becomes fifteen. Asked why the government was moving the other way, his answer was that the case would not survive a jury: "because they have a shit case and they know it's shit, and we're going to trial."

Kiriakou dates that conversation to March 2012. The defence went "all the way up to trial in October of 2012" before a plea was finally negotiated, to a single count under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, carrying thirty months, of which he served twenty-three.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Espionage Act
- Eastern District of Virginia
