# "Whistleblowers die broke"

> **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: ""Whistleblowers die broke"," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/whistleblowers-die-broke/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The observation John Kiriakou attributes to Daniel Ellsberg — that the one thing all whistleblowers have in common is that they die broke — which Kiriakou applies to his own confiscated federal pension and his expectation of working until the day he dies.*

- **Attributed to:** Daniel Ellsberg
- **The claim:** The one thing all whistleblowers have in common
- **Kiriakou's own loss:** His federal pension
- **His expectation:** To work until the day he dies
- **His self-description:** "I'm just a normal guy"

**"Whistleblowers die broke"** is a remark John Kiriakou attributes to Daniel Ellsberg and returns to when describing the practical aftermath of his own case.

## The remark

Kiriakou has said that Daniel Ellsberg once told him that the one thing all whistleblowers have in common is that they die broke — that they are never able to recover. [1]

## Kiriakou's own position

He applies it to himself directly. Asked about the gap between how he is seen and how he lives, Kiriakou answered that he is just a normal guy, that there is nothing special about him in any way, and that he is subject to the same pressures as everyone else — perhaps more, because his conviction cost him his federal pension, so that he is going to have to work until the day he dies. He presents this as simply a reality. [1]

## The wider point

Kiriakou has made the same observation about the position of a whistleblower relative to the government's resources, citing a federal conviction rate of 98.2 per cent and attributing it to the impossibility of outlasting an opponent with unlimited means. He has also described his legal costs, which by his account ran past a million dollars and ended in bankruptcy. [2]

## See also

- [Daniel Ellsberg](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-ellsberg)
- [Bankruptcy And The Dropped Charges](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bankruptcy-and-the-dropped-charges)
- [Whistleblowers and suicide](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/whistleblowers-and-suicide)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. #Unity4J (2018-07-19), at 33:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvbkLfSFgw&t=2016s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-07-19-unity4j-unity4j/
2. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 1:01:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=3714s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/

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