# The stapler in the Dirksen building

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The stapler in the Dirksen building," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-stapler-in-the-dirksen-building/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*An incident John Kiriakou witnessed while serving as a senior staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: a Democratic senator threw a stapler at a staff member in a hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, swore at him, and then looked around to see who had seen it.*

- **Where:** A hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building
- **Kiriakou's role at the time:** Senior staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- **What happened:** A senator threw a stapler at a staff member and swore at him
- **Afterwards:** She looked around to see who had witnessed it

**The stapler in the Dirksen building** is an incident [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says he witnessed during his time on the staff of the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-foreign-relations-committee), where he was one of the senior staff members.[1]

## What he saw

Standing in a hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, he watched a Democratic senator — *"a little teeny tiny Democratic senator, a woman"* — throw a stapler at a staff member and call him an idiot.[1]

The detail Kiriakou dwells on is what happened next. She threw the thing and then immediately looked around to see how many people had seen her, and whether anybody was going to run to the media.[1]

## Why he brought it up

He raised the story in July 2026 as a precedent for a reported incident at the [Democratic National Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-dnc-in-debt), where the chairman threw his telephone at a junior staff member's desk while shouting at them.[2]

His explanation is about status rather than temper. It happens all the time, he says, because members of Congress think they are special, that they are much smarter than everybody else, and that everyone must jump at their every whim — *"and God forbid you should say something that makes them feel like they're not smarter than you are."*[3] Then you get a stapler thrown at you, or a phone thrown at your desk, and then you have to go to human resources.[4]

## See also

- [Senate Foreign Relations Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-foreign-relations-committee)
- [The Dnc In Debt](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-dnc-in-debt)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 24:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1474s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
2. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 24:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1443s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
3. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 25:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1505s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/
4. SHOCKING: New Footage of Lindsey Graham Moments Before Death | Ep. 5 (2026-07-28), at 25:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddj51-ba1C0&t=1535s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-28-john-kiriakou-shocking-new-footage-of-lindsey-graham-moments/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-stapler-in-the-dirksen-building/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt