# Bankruptcy and the dropped charges

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Bankruptcy and the dropped charges," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bankruptcy-and-the-dropped-charges/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The sequence John Kiriakou places at the centre of his case: that the espionage counts against him were dropped only after his legal fees had bankrupted him, which he presents as evidence that the government's aim was attrition rather than conviction.*

- **Legal fees cited:** $1.15 million, in one telling
- **When bankruptcy came:** About ten months after charging
- **What happened then:** The espionage charges were dropped
- **Kiriakou's inference:** They waited for it
- **Federal conviction rate he cites:** 98.2 per cent

**Bankruptcy and the dropped charges** is the sequence John Kiriakou identifies as the decisive fact about his own prosecution.

## The sequence

Kiriakou was charged in January 2012 with five felonies, including three counts of espionage — charges that, as he notes, can carry the death penalty. He has said that ten months later he went bankrupt under the weight of $1.15 million in legal fees, and that as soon as he went bankrupt the government dropped the espionage charges. [1]

In a second telling he compresses the same point still further: that they waited until he went bankrupt before they dropped the charges. [2]

## The inference

Kiriakou's reading is that the charges were never expected to survive. He points to the discovery materials, in which John Brennan wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder telling him to charge Kiriakou with espionage; Holder replied that his lawyers did not believe Kiriakou had committed espionage; and Brennan replied telling him to charge him anyway and make him defend himself. [3] [1]

He generalises the mechanism: that when going against the federal government it is impossible to outlast it, and cites a conviction rate of 98.2 per cent, which he attributes to unlimited resources rather than to the merits. [2]

## What he was left with

What remained after the espionage counts fell away was a single count under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, arising from an email exchange with an author writing about the Abu Omar rendition. [1] Kiriakou has said elsewhere that his own concession about the case was that he had confirmed a name rather than exposed one. [4]

## See also

- [John Brennan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-brennan)
- [Eric Holder](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/eric-holder)
- [The declination letter](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-declination-letter)
- [Abu Omar rendition](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-omar-rendition)
- ["Whistleblowers die broke"](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/whistleblowers-die-broke)

## Sources

1. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 51:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=3107s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/
2. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 1:01:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=3714s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
3. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 1:01:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=3679s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/
4. likely = ingested ev1ozulvly8 (2025-04-16), at 49:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70zQHKcSxE&t=2953s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-likely-ingested-ev1ozulvly8/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bankruptcy-and-the-dropped-charges/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt