The call from a niece and the TikTok surprise

One morning this year John Kiriakou got a call from his 16 year old niece. She told him he was "exploding on TikTok." He had no TikTok account. He does, he says, more of a Facebook lurking thing. But clips from a January podcast he did with Steven Bartlett of Diary of a CEO started showing up everywhere, edited into short, addictive videos.

Who he is and why people care

Kiriakou spent 1990 to 2004 at the CIA as an analyst and counterterrorism officer. He led a 2002 operation that captured Abu Zubaydah, and later spoke publicly about the agency using waterboarding during Zubaydah's detention. In 2007 he gave a TV interview about CIA interrogation practices. In 2012 the Justice Department charged him with disclosing the name of a covert operative to reporters; he pleaded guilty and served time, finishing his sentence in 2015.

Why the pardon matters

Kiriakou says a presidential pardon would clear his name and restore decades of pension contributions. He has said his federal pension was about $700,000, and without it he will have to keep working. He has tried the formal channels and also private routes. In 2018 he paid a lobbyist to press for clemency and reportedly offered an additional payment if the effort succeeded. He also says Rudy Giuliani once tried to shake him down for $2 million; Giuliani later told the New York Times he did not remember meeting him.

Going viral as a strategy

Rather than only hiring lobbyists, Kiriakou did what lots of people do when they want attention: he went on big podcasts. He has appeared on shows hosted by Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Patrick Bet-David, and others. Clips of him telling jaw dropping CIA stories about overseas operations and programs like MKUltra have been sped up, slowed down, and remixed into social video edits that have racked up millions of views.

  • Editors on TikTok and Instagram have turned long interviews into short viral bites.
  • One creator credited with popularizing these edits has amassed tens of millions of views.
  • Fans treat his clips like snackable content, often reposting them with humorous edits.

From memes to money

Virality brought real opportunities. Creative Artists Agency signed Kiriakou. Cameo recruited him and he has made more than 700 personalized videos for fans, charging about $150 each. He says the whole thing is funny to him and that younger creators helped open doors that did not exist before.

Does it help his pardon chances?

Kiriakou says his main aim in doing podcasts was practical: put his clemency plea where President Trump might see it. He believes Trump watches podcasts and that one of these appearances could end up on the president or someone close enough to him and lead to a pardon. The White House declined to comment on his application.

Legal scholars say building a broad base of public support can be smart when seeking clemency. But they also point out that the process is unpredictable. The current political environment has made pardons more visible and, in some cases, tied to private influence and money.

Limits and context

Even with presidential attention, not all cases are simple. For example, certain high profile requests have run into legal limits when the offense was at the state level and not federal. That does not directly affect Kiriakou whose conviction was federal but it shows how messy clemency can be.

What comes next

Kiriakou plans to keep going back on the shows that helped make him an internet character. He will return to some of the same podcasters in the weeks ahead and keep feeding the short video clips that keep finding new audiences. His hope is straightforward: maybe one of those clips will land where it needs to and earn him the pardon he wants.

Short, strange, and now a cultural moment. The ex-CIA officer turned podcast fixture is betting viral fame can translate into clemency.