The lawfare template
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The lawfare template is the characterisation of his own prosecution that John Kiriakou repeats when asked what supporters can do for him, and which he treats as the reason the case matters beyond himself.

The quotation

Kiriakou prefaces it by listing the range of support he has attracted, which he describes as kind of funny for its breadth: Tucker Carlson, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Alan Dershowitz, Dr Phil, a billionaire producer then heading the Make America Great Again foundation, and the former United States attorney in Utah.

It is that last figure Kiriakou quotes. The former U.S. attorney said of his case that the Kiriakou case was the template for the Democratic Party's policy of lawfare.

Kiriakou's own comment is that the observation ought to frighten everybody, because of what it implies: if they do not like you, they can ruin your life, and there is nothing you can do to protect yourself, nothing. He says that has to stop.

The practical stakes

He then sets out why a pardon matters to him in concrete terms, saying the reasons are several fold.

First, the Justice Department confiscated his federal pension. He had twenty years of what he calls proud federal service, and without the pension he paid into he will have to work until the day he dies, with five children to think about.

Second, as a convicted national security felon there are restrictions on his travel: he is not permitted to go to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, and he says he is harassed every time he re-enters the United States from overseas.

Third, and he states it without embellishment, he wants his gun back, having lost his Second Amendment rights for life unless he receives a pardon.

Asked what the public can do, his answer is modest: a quick email to the White House, he says, can do nothing but help.

Related

Kiriakou's view of the official most responsible for his prosecution, John Brennan, is stated in the same appearance and in equally unsparing terms.

See also

- Kiriakou pardon request
- John Brennan
- Espionage Act
- Mar-a-Lago pardon pitch
