Ex-CIA agent goes viral and asks for Trump’s pardon

One morning a few weeks ago, John Kyriakou He received a call from his 16-year-old niece. “Uncle John, you are exploding Tik Tok“, he remembers her telling him.

Kiriakou, a 61-year-old former CIA officer, went to prison in 2013 on charges Disclosing confidential information Regarding the agency’s torture program in the Middle East, she had no idea what she was talking about. He does not have a TikTok account. It’s more than lurking on Facebook, if anything. But clips from the podcast Kiriakou filmed in January with Stephen Bartlett, who hosts the show Diary of a CEO The program, which has more than 15 million subscribers on YouTube, spread rapidly without his intervention.

For nearly two decades, Kyriakou has been campaigning for a presidential pardon. From 1990 to 2004, Kiriakou worked as a CIA analyst and counterterrorism officer, where he led the 2002 operation to capture Abu Zubaydah, who ran a training camp for al-Qaeda fighters. While in detention, the CIA waterboarded Abu Zubaydah. Kyriakou later discussed the agency’s torture methods 2007 interview with ABC NewsWhere he worked as a terrorism advisor. Five years later, The Ministry of Justice charged Kyriakouwho subsequently pleaded guilty to revealing the name of an undercover agent who participated in CIA interrogations to reporters.

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

In recent years, he has filed his requests through official channels and attempted to navigate President Donald Trump’s unofficial files The compassionate market is expensive. So far, his requests have not been responded to. Now he’s trying to do something different, appearing on some of the same podcasts Trump did throughout the 2024 election. Clips of him speaking with Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, among others, won’t stop making the rounds — and the Internet is loving them.

When Kiriakou sat down with Bartlett for the January podcast, they had a serious conversation that discussed his career at the CIA, his whistleblowing, and ultimately his nearly two years in prison. But they’re the stories Kiriakou tells throughout the episode — about intelligence gathering In countries like Pakistan Or detail CIA’s MKUltra program— which attracted millions of views in “brainrot”-style edits on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

“See you in two rolls,” one commenter wrote on a clip of Kyriakou, joking about how often his videos appear on their For You page.

One user using the handle @_bamboclat is credited Know your meme To publish these edits of Kiriakou as he tells unimaginable stories about his time abroad. These clips received about 50 million views on the account.

“I first found out about him through a podcast on TikTok. I think the reason everyone loves him is because he’s a good storyteller,” says @_bamboclat, who declined to reveal his full name. “He’s been saying that for 20 years. The meme version of him slowing it down and speeding it up, the meme version of it, is very popular with Gen Z and the TikTok audience.”

The virality has turned Kiriakou into a cultural phenomenon. Following his new popularity, he was signed by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Cameo – the platform that allows users to request personalized videos from their favorite celebrities – hired Kiriakou last month. So far he has created over 700 videos for fans for around $150 apiece. In one Cameo video, Kiriakou is asked to do just that Shouts nail salon for women. The clip is being used as an ad for the business on TikTok.