Ilhan Omar is a U.S. Representative whom John Kiriakou credits with sponsoring a rewrite of the Espionage Act in two consecutive Congresses, working with his friend Chip Gibbons, who wrote the bill. Asked what he would do first if granted three wishes, Kiriakou says rewriting the Espionage Act would be his first, adding “shout out to Ilhan Omar because she’s working with a good friend of mine to do exactly that.”[1]
Kiriakou says the bill has no chance of becoming law under a Republican-controlled House, not on the merits but because of who is sponsoring it: “The Republicans aren’t going to pass Ilhan Omar’s bill into law. She’s Ilhan Omar. They don’t even want her to be an American citizen.” He calls the result “just politics,” and suggests the same bill from a senior Republican might fare differently.[2]
In a separate interview, Kiriakou says the bill — drafted with attorney Chip Gibbons and modeled as an affirmative defense for whistleblowers — has now been sponsored twice by Omar and has never made it out of subcommittee either time, adding that there has been no substantive whistleblower reform in the United States, at either the state or federal level, since his own case.[3] Asked who in Congress could take up the fight on issues like the Epstein files after Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation, Kiriakou named Omar and the progressive “squad” in the House as the most logical, if politically controversial, successors.[4]