# "Don't charge Donald Trump with espionage"

> **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: ""Don't charge Donald Trump with espionage"," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dont-charge-trump-with-espionage-oped/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*An opinion piece John Kiriakou wrote for Consortium News after the classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago, arguing against an Espionage Act prosecution of Trump — and, in its subheading, against Espionage Act prosecutions of anyone else either. He uses it as the frame for his position that the statute should be scrapped and rewritten to reach only those who mean the country harm.*

- **Published in:** [Consortium News](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/consortium-news)
- **The subheading:** 'And don''t charge anyone else either'
- **The alternative he proposes:** The administrative handling used in the 1990s
- **What he wants done with the statute:** Scrapped and rewritten
- **Who it should reach:** People working for foreign governments, foreign entities or terrorist groups

When classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) wrote a column for [Consortium News](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/consortium-news) whose headline was *"Don't charge Donald Trump with espionage"* and whose subheading was *"and don't charge anyone else either."*[1][2]

## The alternative

The proposal in the piece was a return to the practice he had watched in the 1990s: *"we need to come up with something akin to what we had in the 1990s when classified information was mishandled, or allegedly mishandled"* — [an administrative penalty rather than a prosecution](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pillow-talk-leak-case).[2]

He applies the test consistently to both men. Of the box in [Joe Biden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joe-biden)'s garage: *"who had access to that information? Who saw the information? Who was the information revealed to? Nobody. Maybe it went to his ghost writer. Okay — shame on you, you should have a strongly worded letter put in your personnel file. But espionage? Sorry."* Of Trump: *"Donald Trump has a problem — he has lots of problems — but in this case he had a problem with taking classified information with him in his retirement. Did he publish it? Did he turn it over to Fox News? Is society a more dangerous place because of it? No, not that anybody has proven. So let's put a strongly worded letter in his personnel file or something. But to charge him with espionage, which in some cases can be a death penalty case? No. I'm sorry, it's not appropriate."*[3][4]

## What he wants instead

*"We need to revamp the whole thing. The [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) needs to be scrapped and rewritten, so that it targets people who mean harm to our country — people who are working on behalf of foreign governments or foreign entities or dangerous terrorist groups or something like that. Not for some absent-minded politician who leaves boxes in his garage — and not for whistleblowers and other lower-level leakers who had their lives destroyed."*[5]

## See also

- [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act)
- [The pillow talk leak case](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pillow-talk-leak-case)
- [Consortium News](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/consortium-news)
- [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- [Joe Biden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joe-biden)
- [Mar-a-Lago pardon pitch](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mar-a-lago-pardon-pitch)

## Sources

1. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 15:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=927s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-19-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure/
2. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 16:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=960s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-19-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure/
3. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 17:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=1056s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-19-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure/
4. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 18:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=1089s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-19-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure/
5. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 18:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=1120s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-02-19-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure-kevin-gosztola-unauthorized-disclosure/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dont-charge-trump-with-espionage-oped/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt