# The thrown sandwich > **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 thrown sandwich," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-thrown-sandwich/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The arrest of a man who threw a sandwich at a National Guardsman at 14th and U Street in Washington in August 2025, charged with felony assault on a police officer with a stated demand for ten years, an overcharge John Kiriakou said no Washington jury would ever convict on.* The incident took place at 14th and U, a corner Kiriakou pauses to place, noting that U Street was the centre of the Washington jazz scene a century ago, where Duke Ellington lived and performed and where the Duke Ellington school now stands. He describes it as a hipster area of good restaurants and bars, "a little bit seedy but in a cool way." [1] ## The incident As Kiriakou relates the Washington Post's account, a 38-year-old white man came out of a Subway sandwich shop, saw a group of National Guard personnel, and called them fascist pigs. Words were exchanged. He threw his sandwich, and it hit a National Guardsman in the shoulder. He was promptly tackled and arrested. [2] ## The charge Jeanine Pirro, newly the US attorney for the District of Columbia, called a late-night press conference to announce the arrest of what Kiriakou renders as "this deranged criminal." The charge was a felony count of assaulting a police officer, and her office said it would be asking for ten years in prison. [2] Kiriakou also reports Pirro's later remark that the man had thought it was funny and did not any more, a line he and his co-host treat as having made it funnier. [3] Kiriakou's assessment of the case is categorical: "there's no jury anywhere in Washington that is going to convict this guy of assault on a police officer for throwing a sandwich." [3] He notes the memes the episode generated the same day, and calls the moment "the silly period." [3] ## What the overcharge is for Both men treat the severity as the point rather than a miscalculation. Rall's question, whether the radical overcharge is simply a "don't mess with us" move, given that everyone would mock it and the mockery would only draw more attention, draws Kiriakou's flat agreement: "That's exactly what it is." [4] He attaches it directly to what the deployment was otherwise doing: not policing the two highest-crime areas of the city but manning roadblocks and issuing seat-belt tickets. [4] Kiriakou also relays, from his producer mid-broadcast, that the man had additionally been fired from his job, and identifies him as a Department of Justice employee. [4] He does not dispute Rall's summary of the asymmetry, a heavily armed man in Kevlar so angered by a thrown sandwich that the thrower must be pursued. [4] ## See also - [The seat-belt roadblocks](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-seat-belt-roadblocks) - [The National Guard in Washington](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-national-guard-in-washington) - [The hierarchy of charges](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hierarchy-of-charges) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-14), at 02:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htr-FhIuCKo&t=122s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-14-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-14), at 02:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htr-FhIuCKo&t=154s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-14-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-14), at 03:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htr-FhIuCKo&t=185s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-14-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-14), at 03:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htr-FhIuCKo&t=218s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-14-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-thrown-sandwich/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt