# Thursday arrests

> **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: "Thursday arrests," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/thursday-arrests/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The scheduling practice John Kiriakou attributes to the FBI — arresting on a Thursday so that a defendant, unable to be arraigned on a Friday, spends four nights in jail before seeing a judge — and the single sentence that he says kept him out of it.*

- **Practice alleged:** Arresting on Thursdays
- **Effect:** Four nights in jail before arraignment
- **Reason Kiriakou gives:** Courts do not arraign new prisoners on Fridays
- **Stated purpose:** To soften a defendant into taking a deal
- **What saved Kiriakou:** Asking to speak to his lawyer immediately

**Thursday arrests** is John Kiriakou's characterisation of an FBI scheduling practice, drawn from the day in January 2012 when agents told him they were raiding his house.

## The practice

Kiriakou has said that on the day the FBI told him they were going to arrest him, they intended to do so that day, and that the only thing that saved him was his saying that he wanted to speak to his lawyer, and to speak to him right then. [1]

He adds that it was a Thursday, and gives what he believes is the reason: the FBI likes to arrest people on Thursdays, because the courts do not arraign new prisoners on Fridays. A defendant arrested on a Thursday therefore spends Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in jail. [1]

## The purpose he attributes to it

Kiriakou's account of the intention is blunt: that they hope the defendant has a rough time, perhaps gets beaten up, which softens him and makes him more willing to take a deal. [1]

## The context

He has described the same encounter elsewhere: two agents met him at the Washington Field Office, told him they had just finished reading his book and enjoyed it, and then told him they were raiding his house at that moment. He asked to speak to his attorney and was allowed to leave. [1]

Kiriakou places the practice within a wider claim about the asymmetry facing a defendant, noting a federal conviction rate he cites as 98.2 per cent and attributing it to unlimited government resources that no individual can outlast. [2]

## See also

- [Whistleblowers And Suicide](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/whistleblowers-and-suicide)
- ["It's about mitigating damage"](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mitigating-damage)
- [Federal plea coercion](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/federal-plea-coercion)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. #Unity4J (2018-07-19), at 24:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvbkLfSFgw&t=1446s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2018-07-19-unity4j-unity4j/
2. Episode 572 Blowing the Whistle with John Kiriakou (2021-09-25), at 1:01:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audd3a7d0e6&t=3714s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-25-abe-lincoln-s-top-hat-episode-572-blowing-the-whistle-with-john-kir/

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