Some truths are harsh, but they must be spoken. Writing these difficult facts aims not to condemn, but to awaken. Repentance must come; if not, it won’t be the best of times, but the worst of times. “The time is always right to do what is right,” said Martin Luther King, Jr., decades after Winston Churchill wrote “the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of virtuous.” These times are no different and demand bold actors to rise up and let justice flow like a river.
Here is the brutal reckoning: When those who cloak themselves in righteousness wield malice just as deftly as the wicked, wickedness will storm the gates and win. That is not a prediction—it is a warning carved in stone. We are not just flirting with defeat; we are handing evil the keys to the kingdom. In this twisted era, politicians parade as champions of justice while peddling empty promises and favors for donors with deep pockets. Christian leaders, modern-day priests and Levites, pass by the marginalized—whistleblowers like John Kiriakou—without speaking out or taking action, despite loudly preaching against abuses of power by the state. The church, meant to embody Christ’s radical compassion, remains silent as the oppressed cry out for justice.
Welcome to the Age of Hypocrisy, where truth is distorted, integrity is optional, and institutions from Capitol Hill to the pulpit betray their sacred trusts. This systemic corruption allows darkness to flourish, highlighted by the Republican clown car of weak governance abandoning their constitutional duty of oversight with empty probes meant to generate viral clicks and raise funds for their campaigns. Selective pardons for wealthy donors override justice for the marginalized, and truth-tellers are discarded like yesterday’s trash. Let’s examine how we are complicit in our own decline.
In politics, the Republican Party’s hypocrisy rolls on like a clown car, full of drama but running on fumes. Take the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, hyped as a bulldozer against “deep state” abuses. Launched in 2023 under Jim Jordan, it promised shocking revelations on government overreach. It turned into partisan theater, failing to deliver any real accountability. By its end in 2025, after a lengthy 17,000-page final report in December 2024, what did it accomplish? Nothing. No major prosecutions or reforms—just the same old song and dance like a broken jukebox—political theater, showboating and grandstanding.
Trump’s January 2025 executive order on “ending weaponization” echoed its rhetoric, but actual changes? Policy adjustments at DOJ and IRS, plus the dissolution of a media group—hardly the promised revolution. This circus of outrage over scandals like the Russia Hoax, CIA and FBI abuses, yet no heads roll—just endless hearings that mimic Benghazi’s futility. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump flexes Article Two constitutional powers aggressively, targeting political enemies by revoking security clearances and firing federal workers he perceives as foes, while granting clemency to the well-connected.
President Trump’s pardon spree exemplifies favoritism: mercy for the wealthy, hardship for everyone else. By mid-2025, approximately one in five non-J6-related pardons went to individuals with financial or political connections. Paul Walczak, convicted of tax crimes, was released after his mother donated $1 million to a Trump super PAC and he mingled at Mar-a-Lago. Trevor Milton, guilty of fraud, had his sentence reduced amid $1.8 million in family donations to Trump’s committees. Reality TV fraudsters Todd and Julie Chrisley, popular among MAGA supporters and showing no remorse, also received clemency.
Yet John Kiriakou—who confirmed what was already known through the Red Cross and other public entities—exposed the post-9/11 torture and served 23 months for a disclosure that harmed no one, remains unpardoned. Kiriakou was the first victim of President Obama’s and John Brennan’s weaponization of government power, wrongly targeted for prosecution in 2009-2012 after the Department of Justice under President Bush investigated and found no wrongdoing with a declination of prosecution letter.
The American Conservative pleaded for Trump to reverse Obama’s injustice, but Kiriakou—without donor millions—languishes. Trump rails against elite rigging, then rigs pardons for wealthy contributors, using Article Two to protect allies while ignoring the powerless.
Meanwhile, despite the historic resolution of most FBI Suspendables cases in August 2025, other FBI and CIA whistleblowers who lost their clearances through abuses of power in acts of retaliation remain without clearances, without reinstatement, and powerless in the hands of their oppressors. This is not justice; it is a pay-to-play system that grants evil the keys by corrupting clemency, highlighting the GOP’s foolish inaction.
The intelligence community reflects this betrayal by abandoning whistleblowers who expose corruption while claiming to uphold accountability. Kiriakou’s case is a clear example: Prosecuted under Obama for confirming a CIA agent’s identity to a reporter who never published it, he lost his pension and reputation. Obama loyalists like Brennan and Petraeus leaked even more damaging information with impunity, yet Kiriakou paid the price. Trump’s second term, now at 241 days, offers no relief. Consortium News called the pardon process “unpardonable,” noting Kiriakou’s abandonment while Trump frees donors with criminal ties.
Others fare no better: Dan Meyer, who was fired in 2018 as the IC whistleblower ombudsman, and Andrew Bakaj, who was retaliated against for reporting CIA IG violations of laws, remain in limbo.
One significant CIA reprisal case remains unresolved. Pedro Israel Orta was fired in a CIA kangaroo court-like process that denied him any proper due process.
Orta’s request for an attorney was stonewalled by the CIA Office of General Counsel and was only approved after his termination, at which point the CIA told his attorney to go pound sand—he was fired, and there is nothing to discuss.
Even more troubling, Orta’s retaliation from 2017 and 2018 was never investigated, and the CIA IG’s investigation into the 2015 reprisals was a sham spectacle, reminiscent of Soviet show trials during Stalin’s era.
The Intelligence Community claims to provide protections, but it is a sham: Politicized leaks are excused, while genuine exposés are punished. Congress—Democrats pursuing impeachment, Republicans holding powerless hearings—does nothing. The hypocrisy here is deadly: Agencies sworn to defend America betray their duty when truth challenges power, allowing evil to prevail by default.
Religious leaders and institutions linked to the Make America Great Again movement, intended to serve as a guiding light, are complicit in this moral decline. These Christian leaders, the priests and Levites of our era, fail to embody the gospel they preach, passing by the marginalized without a word of advocacy as they march toward the next photo-op on the road to Jericho.
Meanwhile, they abandon whistleblowers like Kiriakou, who risked everything for truth, and are ignored by evangelical powerhouses who preach about justice but stay silent on the oppressed.
The New Yorker revealed how evangelical elites, like those connected to Trump’s circle, prioritize political loyalty over biblical commandments to help the vulnerable. These leaders’ refusal to speak out or act weakens the church and turns modern Christianity into a business for personal profit, neglecting to serve society’s marginalized.
In 2025, Christianity reflects pre-Reformation hypocrisy: spectacle instead of service, silence instead of solidarity. When pastors preach compassion but ignore the hurting, they weaken the gospel, allowing evil to dominate the kingdom.
Politicians proclaiming pro-life positions are no different. Some wear their pro-life stance like a badge of honor but cannot lift a pinky for those outside the womb. Not one of these politicians has publicly shown solidarity with persecuted whistleblowers or called for the reinstatement and resolution of these cases, including a pardon for Kiriakou.
These politicians are prostitutes pimping the pro-life platform to gain political power and personal profit. If you cannot speak up and act for the living outside the womb in need, then a pro-life stance is nothing more than political theater.
This Age of Hypocrisy is engineered. The GOP’s clown car promises accountability but delivers circus acts. President Trump pardons donors while snubbing Kiriakou. Politicians, preachers and the president abandon the truth-tellers. Christian leaders gloat about their access to the White House, invite their cronies to mingle with dignitaries, but shun the marginalized who have faithfully served this country. The thread? Power over principle, narrative over truth.
President Trump’s Article Two powers exact vengeance on political enemies, but bypasses patriots who risked it all. Why wait for divine justice? Demand it now: Pardon Kiriakou and restore the forgotten whistleblowers, prosecute the corrupt, and rally the church to action.
Otherwise, as the warning echoes, wickedness storms the gates—because we have handed it the keys.
CovertAction Magazine is made possible by subscriptions, orders and donations from readers like you.
Blow the Whistle on U.S. Imperialism
Click the whistle and donate
When you donate to CovertAction Magazine, you are supporting investigative journalism. Your contributions go directly to supporting the development, production, editing, and dissemination of the Magazine.
CovertAction Magazine does not receive corporate or government sponsorship. Yet, we hold a steadfast commitment to providing compensation for writers, editorial and technical support. Your support helps facilitate this compensation as well as increase the caliber of this work.
Please make a donation by clicking on the donate logo above and enter the amount and your credit or debit card information.
CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your gift is tax-deductible for federal income purposes. CAI’s tax-exempt ID number is 87-2461683.
We sincerely thank you for your support.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s). CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI), including its Board of Directors (BD), Editorial Board (EB), Advisory Board (AB), staff, volunteers and its projects (including CovertAction Magazine) are not responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. This article also does not necessarily represent the views the BD, the EB, the AB, staff, volunteers, or any members of its projects.
Differing viewpoints: CAM publishes articles with differing viewpoints in an effort to nurture vibrant debate and thoughtful critical analysis. Feel free to comment on the articles in the comment section and/or send your letters to the Editors, which we will publish in the Letters column.
Copyrighted Material: This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. As a not-for-profit charitable organization incorporated in the State of New York, we are making such material available in an effort to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.
Republishing: CovertAction Magazine (CAM) grants permission to cross-post CAM articles on not-for-profit community internet sites as long as the source is acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original CovertAction Magazine article. Also, kindly let us know at info@CovertActionMagazine.com. For publication of CAM articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: info@CovertActionMagazine.com.
By using this site, you agree to these terms above.
About the Author
Pedro Israel Orta is a highly decorated 18-year veteran of the CIA with warzone experiences—earning eight exceptional performance awards.
He was fired a year shy of retirement in retaliation for blowing the whistle.
Pedro is the author of “The Broken Whistle: A Deep State Run Amok” and executive producer of the documentary “Deep State Gangsters.”
You can follow him at: www.pedroisraelorta.com.
