Jonathan Pollard is the U.S. Navy civilian intelligence analyst convicted in 1985 of spying for Israel. He is the canonical publicly proven case of Israeli espionage against the United States. John Kiriakou invokes Pollard’s case in his account of his first appearance on Piers Morgan’s program, in which he debated a former director of the MOSSAD who denied any post-1985 Israeli espionage against the United States. Kiriakou’s counter: “Jonathan Pollard was caught in 1985, and you were spying on the United States in 1998, you know, or 2004.” The former Mossad director declined to comment.[1]
The KGB trade (Tommy G, April 2026)
John Kiriakou described a dimension of the Pollard case that he characterized as illustrating the nature of the U.S.-Israel intelligence relationship. The Israelis, after receiving the classified Pentagon material from Pollard, traded that intelligence to the KGB in exchange for a planeload of Russian Jews being permitted to resettle as refugees in Israel.[2][3]
Kiriakou offered this as context for why he believed Jeffrey Epstein was collecting classified defense documents from figures such as Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew: “This is exactly what the Israelis have collected through history. Why would today be any different?“[3]
187 undeclared Israeli officers — day-one CIA briefing
John Kiriakou described what he was told on his very first day at the CIA as a new hire. In an auditorium with approximately 300 other new employees, the CIA director of security gave a briefing. He stated that at the Israeli embassy in Washington, there are two declared intelligence officers: one from MOSSAD, one from Shin Bet. But the FBI had identified 187 undeclared Israeli intelligence officers operating across the United States, the majority attempting to infiltrate American defense contractors.[4][5]
The reason they were not arrested: the political relationship with Israel was too close and Congress would not permit it.[5] Kiriakou has repeated the same 187-officer figure elsewhere, saying he stated on Piers Morgan’s show that Israel spies on the United States and that Pollard “was not an anomaly.”[6]
Pollard’s motive and the Soviet trade
John Kiriakou stated that Jonathan Pollard was a Navy intelligence analyst — not a CIA officer — who stole thousands of pages of top-secret documents and sold them to Israel. His motive was money, not ideology, not religion, not love of Israel. The Israelis then traded those top-secret documents to the Soviet Union in exchange for the release of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel.[7][8] Kiriakou has repeated this account elsewhere, describing Pollard as an American Navy analyst of Jewish faith caught in 1985, whose stolen military documents Israel likewise traded to the Soviet Union for the release of Soviet Jews.[9] On a separate program he called it “the top secret documents that he stole from the Pentagon, traded them to the Soviet KGB in exchange for a plane load of Jewish refugees,” adding that Pollard was “essentially spying for the KGB.”[10] Kiriakou has also cited Pollard as the standard example of a civilian U.S. naval intelligence asset who passed classified material to Israel, which Israel then disseminated onward.[11]
Netanyahu’s repeated demands — the Tenet ultimatum
On literally every visit to the Oval Office, regardless of which president was in office, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded: “Release Pollard.” Every president said no.[8]
When Bill Clinton came closest to agreeing, George Tenet delivered an ultimatum: “If you release Pollard, I will resign, and the head of every intelligence agency in the American government will resign.” Clinton backed down. Pollard served his full thirty-year sentence.[8][12] Kiriakou’s fuller account of the pattern: “every single time Netanyahu would come to the country, no matter who was president, he would say you got to release Pollard,” and “literally every head of every American intelligence agency said if you release Pollard, [I] will resign.”[13]
Release, Adelson jet, subsequent statements
Upon release, Pollard flew to Israel on a private jet owned by Sheldon Adelson. He was met at the airport by Benjamin Netanyahu. He got off the plane and kissed the ground. Netanyahu bestowed Israeli citizenship on him at the airport.[12] Kiriakou also says the Israelis “gave him citizenship, put him on a plane, and now he lives in Jerusalem,” and that he had heard separately Pollard flew back to Israel “on Adelson’s jet.”[14][9]
Pollard subsequently gave an interview to Israeli media in which he: (1) urged Israel to use nuclear weapons against the United States if the United States did not comply with Israeli demands; and (2) urged all American Jews holding security clearances to spy for Israel.[12][15] In a similar retelling, Kiriakou says Pollard told an Israeli journalist that American Jews should take up arms against the American government, and that as of Kiriakou’s account, Pollard is running for the Knesset.[16][17] Kiriakou adds that Trump later pardoned Pollard’s Israeli Mossad handler, who — unlike Pollard — had never been charged with or imprisoned for any crime.[18]
Kiriakou noted that following these statements, the U.S. ambassador met with Pollard at the American embassy. His stated reaction to the entire sequence: “I’m befuddled by the whole situation.”[15] In a separate telling, Kiriakou says U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee welcomed Pollard into the embassy as a hero and personally ushered him in to meet with him — prompting Kiriakou to tweet that morning that Huckabee was an embarrassment to the United States and should resign immediately.[19][20][21][22]
The 30-year sentence and embassy welcome
Jonathan Pollard received a 30-year sentence and was welcomed at the American embassy in Jerusalem. This reception was seen as controversial and sparked criticism. [23]
Jason Jones retelling — the KGB trade and the Adelson jet
Retelling the case, John Kiriakou says Jonathan Pollard gave Israel top-secret U.S. information on Soviet military movements, which Israel then passed to the KGB in exchange for planeloads of Russian Jews permitted to emigrate — damage that Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger called “grave.”[24][25] Pollard served every day of his thirty-year sentence, then flew to Israel on Sheldon Adelson’s jet, was met by Benjamin Netanyahu, kissed the ground, received citizenship, and urged American Jews to take up arms against the United States — after which, Kiriakou says, an American ambassador welcomed him to the embassy “like some kind of conquering hero.”[26][27]