Ex-CIA agent goes viral asking for a Trump pardon

One morning a few weeks ago, John Kiriakou got a call from his 16-year-old niece. “Uncle John, you’re exploding TikTok“He remembers her telling him.

Kiriakou, a 61-year-old former CIA officer who went to prison in 2013 for disclose classified information Related to the agency’s Middle East torture program, she had no idea what she was talking about. He doesn’t have a TikTok account. He’s more of a Facebook veil, if anything. But excerpts from a podcast Kiriakou filmed in January with Steven Bartlett, who is the host Diary of a CEO show, which has more than 15 million subscribers on YouTube, went viral without his intervention.

For nearly two decades, Kiriakou has been campaigning to receive a presidential pardon. From 1990 to 2004, Kiriakou served as a CIA analyst and counterterrorism officer, leading an operation in 2002 to capture Abu Zubaydah, who ran a training camp for al-Qaeda fighters. During his detention, the CIA waterboarded Zubaydah. Kiriakou later discussed the agency’s torture tactics A 2007 interview with ABC Newswhere he served as a terrorism consultant. Five years later, the Justice Department indicted Kiriakouwho then pleaded guilty to revealing to journalists the name of an undercover agent who participated in CIA interrogations.

Although Kiriakou completed his prison term in 2015, he wants a presidential pardon to clear his name and recover decades of pension contributions. “I had 20 years of proud federal service. My pension was $700,000,” says Kiriakou. “Without that pension, I’m going to have to work until the day I die. It was wrong of them to take it from me, and I want it back. I can only get it back with a waiver.”

In recent years, he has applied through official channels and tried to circumvent President Donald Trump’s informal and expensive mercy market. So far, his requests have gone unanswered. Now he’s trying something different, appearing on some of the same podcasts that Trump did throughout the 2024 election. Clips of him talking to Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, among others, won’t stop making the rounds—and the Internet loves it.

When Kiriakou sat down with Bartlett for the January podcast, they had a serious conversation about his career with the CIA, his whistle-blowing and ultimately his nearly two-year prison sentence. But these are the stories Kiriakou tells throughout the episode – about gathering intelligence in countries like Pakistan or detail the CIA’s MKUltra program-which have drawn millions of views in “brain rot”-style edits on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

“See you in two scrolls,” one commenter wrote on a clip of Kiriakou, joking about how often videos of him appeared on their For You page.

One user who goes by the handle @_bamboclat is credited by Know your meme for the popularity of these edits of Kiriakou telling unimaginable stories about his time abroad. These clips have received approximately 50 million views on the account.

“I first found out about him through podcasts on TikTok. I think the reason everyone is in love with him is because he’s a great storyteller,” said @_bamboclat, who declined to share his full name. “He’s been telling it for 20 years. Slowing it down and speeding it up, the meme version of him, is pretty popular with Gen Z and the TikTok audience.”

The virality turned Kiriakou into a cultural phenomenon. Following his newfound popularity, the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signed him. Cameo — the platform that allows users to request personalized videos of their favorite celebrities — recruited Kiriakou last month. So far, he’s made more than 700 videos for fans for about $150 apiece. In one Cameo video, Kiriakou is asked to shout out to woman’s nail salon. The clip is used as an advertisement for the business on TikTok.