# The Armitage leak

> **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: "The Armitage leak," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-armitage-leak/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of who actually disclosed Valerie Plame's identity: Richard Armitage — whom Kiriakou identifies as deputy secretary of defense — who everybody assumed would be charged under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and who was never charged with any crime at all. Scooter Libby, he stresses, never leaked the name and was never accused of doing so; Libby fell on a perjury count.*

- **Leaker, per Kiriakou:** Richard Armitage
- **Office as Kiriakou gives it:** Deputy secretary of defense
- **Expected charge:** Intelligence Identities Protection Act
- **Actual charge:** None — never charged with any crime
- **Scooter Libby:** Never leaked the name; never accused of it
- **Libby's conviction:** Perjury

Asked by a viewer whether Scooter Libby could have been prosecuted under the [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act), or whoever leaked [Valerie Plame](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/valerie-plame)'s name, John Kiriakou corrected the premise of the question before answering it.

## The person who leaked

The questioner had suggested a conspiracy involving Dick Cheney.[1] Kiriakou did not adopt that framing. "It was Rich Armitage," he said — identifying him as "the deputy secretary of defense" — "who leaked Valerie Plame's name."[1]

On the legal exposure Kiriakou was unambiguous. "Not only could he have been charged with violating the [Intelligence Identities Protection Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/intelligence-identities-protection-act), everybody assumed that he would be charged, at least with that," he said, "and in fact he was never charged with any crime."[1]

## What Libby was actually accused of

Kiriakou then separated the two men, which is the substance of his correction. "Scooter Libby never leaked Valerie Plame's name," he said. "He was never accused of leaking Valerie Plame's name. He was accused of perjury, and that's what brought him down."[1][2]

The distinction matters to Kiriakou's wider argument because the Libby case is routinely remembered as the prosecution of the Plame leak. On his account it was nothing of the kind: the disclosure went unprosecuted, and the only conviction obtained arose from testimony given during the investigation of it.

## The pattern he draws from it

[Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) drew the conclusion Kiriakou had been building toward — that the hypocrisy lies in the charging decision itself, and that if you are "one of the swells, one of the inside people, you can say anything you want," while an outsider or a truth-teller should expect a rough road.[2] Kiriakou agreed and called the description an understatement.[2]

He raised the Armitage case in the same conversation in which he was arguing that [Tulsi Gabbard](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tulsi-gabbard) had committed the same statutory offence and would likewise not be charged — and in which he maintained, consistently, that nobody should be prosecuted under that statute, himself included.

## A note on the office

Kiriakou describes Armitage as deputy secretary of defense. The description is preserved here as he gave it; he did not correct himself and the point was not raised in the exchange.

## See also

- [Valerie Plame](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/valerie-plame)
- [Intelligence Identities Protection Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/intelligence-identities-protection-act)
- [The thirty-seven analysts](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-thirty-seven-analysts)
- [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act)
- [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 08:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=503s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 08:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=536s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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