WASHINGTON -- John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Friday, becoming the first CIA officer to ever be sent to jail for leaking classified information.
Kiriakou sent a freelance reporter the name of a CIA agent in August 2008. The agent, who took part in the CIA's interrogation program, was undercover at the time, though Kiriakou maintains he believed the agent was retired.
The 30-month sentence was part of a plea deal Kiriakou had worked out with federal prosecutors in October. But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who hears cases in Alexandria, Va., thought the 30-month sentence "is way too light," according to The New York Times.
Brinkema said Kiriakou, who spoke to ABC News about torture back in 2007, was not a whistle-blower. Kiriakou declined to make any comments ahead of his sentence. "Perhaps you have already spoken too much," Brinkema said.
A number of supporters have asked President Barack Obama to commute Kiriakou's sentence.
UPDATE: 11:40 p.m. -- U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia issued a statement on Friday after Kiriakou's sentencing, saying the former CIA agent "betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the United States and he betrayed his colleagues whose secrecy is their only safety."
"John Kiriakou put the life of a covert officer at risk; he put the officer's family in danger; and he exposed our nation's vital secrets," MacBride said. "Oaths matter and today's sentence should serve as reminder to those who are entrusted with classified information that damage done by leaks is not speculative or hypothetical –- it is actual and substantial, and the Justice Department will hold them accountable."
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