Former CIA counterterrorism chief John Kiriakou said his 2012 prosecution was a trial run for the Democratic Party's "template" for lawfare later used against President Donald Trump.
Kiriakou, the CIA officer who led the team that captured al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, blew the whistle on the agency’s waterboarding program over a decade ago. He was jailed for nearly two years after the Obama administration charged him under the Espionage Act and the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) for disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer.
Kiriakou claims his conviction was a test case for federal prosecutors. He argues that by testing it on a former CIA officer, the government refined the legal tactics it would later use against President Donald Trump and members of his circle.
"Brett Tolman, the former U.S. attorney from Trump One, former U.S. attorney for Utah, said the Kiriakou case was the template," Kiriakou said on the "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" podcast, adding, "The template for the Democratic Party's policy of lawfare."
Kiriakou claims federal prosecutors wanted to test the tactics on a "nobody" before targeting larger political rivals, including General Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and eventually President Donald Trump.
He described a system that he says bankrupts targets and ruins their reputations, leaving them unable to fight back.
"The next thing you know, you're drowning in millions of dollars of legal debt, your reputation is ruined," Kiriakou...
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