# Blackmail of closeted politicians

> **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: "Blackmail of closeted politicians," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackmail-of-closeted-politicians/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's argument that a significant number of senior American politicians are concealing their sexuality and are vulnerable to blackmail because of it, illustrated with a roll-call of congressional outings from the 1980s onward.*

- **Kiriakou's question:** How many senior national politicians are closeted and being blackmailed for it
- **Cases cited:** Barney Frank; Gerry Studds; a Mississippi Republican; an Idaho senator
- **Contemporary case:** [Bernie Moreno](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bernie-moreno)

Prompted by the [Bernie Moreno](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bernie-moreno) affair, Kiriakou puts a general question: *"it makes one wonder too how many politicians, senior politicians, national politicians, do you think are closeted in some way and are being blackmailed for it?"*[1] The interest is professional as much as political, the leverage a concealed private life gives is the same mechanism the CIA relies on in [recruitment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackmail-in-recruitment).

## The roll-call

His examples come from his own college years in the 1980s, when two Democratic congressmen from Massachusetts were outed at the same time.[1] Barney Frank, who Kiriakou notes had recently died, was having an affair with a man who turned out to be a prostitute; Frank apparently did not know, and let him move into his house on Capitol Hill, where the man *"was turning tricks in the congressman's house"* while Frank was at work. Frank was forced to acknowledge that he was gay, and in Kiriakou's summary, *"nobody cared."*[2][3]

The comparison he draws is with Gerry Studds, who *"was having sex with underage male pages, 16 year olds"* and who, *"believe it or not"*, was re-elected and never charged with a crime.[3] A Mississippi Republican, whom he names as *"John Henson"*, was caught in a House bathroom with his male chief of staff and did not survive the scandal.[2][4] His last case is the Idaho senator arrested in a Minneapolis airport men's room for a foot-tapping signal, whose defence was that he had *"a wide stance"* and was tapping his toes at random rather than soliciting the man in the next stall; the senator's wife stayed with him.[4] The auto-captions render the Mississippi congressman as *"John Henson"* and the Idaho senator as *"Mccclure"*; both are recorded here as spoken.

Kiriakou's summary of the pattern is that it is not exceptional: *"this kind of thing happens all the time."*[4]

## See also

- [Bernie Moreno](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bernie-moreno)
- [Max Miller](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/max-miller)
- [Blackmail in agent recruitment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackmail-in-recruitment)

## Sources

1. Who is Really Behind the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta? | Ep. 7 (2026-08-04), at 30:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkZpg3HB50&t=1809s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-04-john-kiriakou-who-is-really-behind-the-migrant-crisis-in-ce/
2. Who is Really Behind the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta? | Ep. 7 (2026-08-04), at 30:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkZpg3HB50&t=1839s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-04-john-kiriakou-who-is-really-behind-the-migrant-crisis-in-ce/
3. Who is Really Behind the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta? | Ep. 7 (2026-08-04), at 31:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkZpg3HB50&t=1870s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-04-john-kiriakou-who-is-really-behind-the-migrant-crisis-in-ce/
4. Who is Really Behind the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta? | Ep. 7 (2026-08-04), at 31:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkZpg3HB50&t=1902s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-04-john-kiriakou-who-is-really-behind-the-migrant-crisis-in-ce/

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