# The pillow talk leak 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 pillow talk leak case," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pillow-talk-leak-case/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A 1990s CIA disclosure John Kiriakou witnessed from the next desk: a colleague passed classified information to a retired senior officer she was involved with, who repeated it on CNN as a terrorism consultant. The agency traced it to her within days and punished her administratively — a letter in her file, two weeks without pay, a year without promotion. Kiriakou holds it up as the correct way to handle mishandled classified information.*

- **When:** The 1990s
- **Who:** A colleague at the desk beside Kiriakou''s
- **The recipient:** A retired senior CIA officer, then a CNN terrorism consultant
- **How it surfaced:** He repeated the information on air
- **Time to identify her:** Immediate
- **The punishment:** A letter in her file, two weeks'' suspension without pay, one year ineligible for promotion
- **Charges brought:** None

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses this case as his benchmark for proportionate treatment of a classified disclosure, and he watched it happen from the adjacent desk.

*"At the CIA in the 1990s I sat next to a woman who was having an affair with a man who used to be a senior CIA officer. He had retired and he had gone to CNN as a terrorism consultant — and in the course of pillow talk she relayed classified information to him. He went on CNN and repeated the classified information."*[1][2]

The investigation was quick and the outcome was administrative. *"The CIA began an investigation. They immediately tied it right back to her. She was not charged with espionage. What they did was they wrote a strongly worded letter and put it in her personnel file. They suspended her without pay for two weeks, and she was ineligible for a promotion for a period of one year."*[3]

His conclusion is stated as a rule: *"that's how you handle the misuse of classified information."* He applies it in both directions — to the boxes in [Joe Biden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joe-biden)'s garage and to the documents at Mar-a-Lago alike: *"shame on you, you should have a strongly worded letter put in your personnel file. But espionage? Sorry."*[3][4][5]

## See also

- [Dont Charge Trump With Espionage Oped](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dont-charge-trump-with-espionage-oped)
- [Espionage Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/espionage-act)
- [CIA adultery culture](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-adultery-culture)
- [Classification compartments](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/classification-compartments)
- [CIA media revolving door](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-media-revolving-door)

## Sources

1. 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/
2. Kevin Gosztola (Unauthorized Disclosure) (2024-02-19), at 16:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=994s · 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 17:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E8EypwzPA&t=1025s · 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 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/
5. 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/

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