# The Frank Kendall Air Force One case > **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 Frank Kendall Air Force One case," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-frank-kendall-air-force-one-case/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The 2026 Espionage Act investigation of former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, an acknowledged MAGA Republican expert whom John Kiriakou describes as having publicly warned that the Boeing 747 the government of Qatar gifted the United States for use as Air Force One was not up to the security standards a presidential aircraft requires. Kiriakou reads the resulting grand-jury proceeding as embarrassment prosecution, and expects Kendall not to be indicted, but the case illustrates the reach of Espionage Act charges Kiriakou himself faced.* - **Kendall's role:** Former Secretary of the [U.S. Air Force](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-air-force); MAGA Republican; acknowledged expert - **The claim he made publicly:** The Boeing 747 gifted by [Qatar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/qatar) for use as [Air Force One](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/air-force-one) *"was not up to standards"*, missing the radar jammers and classified electronic gear the presidential aircraft requires - **Consequence for Trump:** The plane could not be used; the retrofit began; Trump had to continue on the previous Air Force One - **Trump's response:** Fired Kendall and revoked his security clearance - **Current status:** A federal grand jury is meeting to consider indictment under the [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) - **Kiriakou's forecast:** *"I actually don't think they're going to be able to prosecute him"* - **Kiriakou's rule:** *"What he said publicly helped to keep the president safe"* **The Frank Kendall Air Force One case** is the September 2026 federal grand-jury proceeding against former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall that [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) has aired on his own show, an [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) investigation over a public warning Kiriakou treats as a favor to the president, not a leak against him. ## Kiriakou's summary *"For anybody not familiar with the story, Frank Kendall, until, what, last year, I guess, was the Secretary of the Air Force. MAGA Republican, an acknowledged expert in his field. But he said publicly that the Boeing 747 jumbo jet that the government of Qatar gifted to the government of the United States to be used as Air Force One was not up to standards when it comes to security. You have to have like radar jammers and all kinds of crazy sophisticated classified gear on it. And it didn't."*[1][2] ## What happened next *"So when that got out, the president was embarrassed and he got angry and then he had to not take that one and they had to revamp it and then he had to take the old Air Force One. He was all angry. So he fired Frank Kendall and revoked his security clearance. And now there's a federal grand jury that's meeting to decide whether or not to indict him under the Espionage Act."*[2][3] ## Kiriakou's read *"Listen, what he said publicly helped to keep the president safe. So if I were the president, I would have just said, 'Okay, so we're just going to retrofit the jet and everybody's happy.' But now it's this big cause célèbre. I actually don't think they're going to be able to prosecute him. I think this thing is going to drag out to the point where either the White House loses"*, the interviewer's clip ends there, but Kiriakou's expectation is that no indictment will land.[3] ## See also - [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act) - [Air Force One](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/air-force-one) - [Qatar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/qatar) ## Sources 1. 'Would I Run For President?' | Q&A With An Ex-CIA Agent (2026-09-05), at 16:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09ZaBP3Bu8&t=979s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-09-05-john-kiriakou-would-i-run-for-president/ 2. 'Would I Run For President?' | Q&A With An Ex-CIA Agent (2026-09-05), at 16:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09ZaBP3Bu8&t=1009s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-09-05-john-kiriakou-would-i-run-for-president/ 3. 'Would I Run For President?' | Q&A With An Ex-CIA Agent (2026-09-05), at 17:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09ZaBP3Bu8&t=1040s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-09-05-john-kiriakou-would-i-run-for-president/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-frank-kendall-air-force-one-case/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt