Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA from 1990 to 2004, was charged with disclosing classified information, including the name of a covert CIA officer and information revealing the role of another CIA employee in classified activities, the DoJ said in a statement.
The four-count criminal complaint, which was filed Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that Kiriakou made illegal disclosures about two CIA employees and their involvement in classified operations to two journalists on multiple occasions between 2007 and 2009.
In one case, revealing the employee’s name as a CIA officer disclosed classified information as the employee was and remains covert. In the second case, Kiriakou allegedly disclosed the name and contact information of an employee, whose participation in an operation to capture and question terrorism subject Abu Zubaydah in 2002 was then classified.
The DoJ investigation revealed that on multiple occasions, one of the journalists to whom Kiriakou is alleged to have illegally disclosed classified information revealed that information to a defense team investigator for Guantanamo Bay detainees. This information was reflected in the classified defense filing and enabled the defense team to take or obtain surveillance photographs of government personnel.
The prosecution of Kiriakou is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, according to legal experts consulted by the Washington Post.