DC man who threw sandwich at federal agent avoids felony indictment

Prosecutors in Washington, D.C., failed to persuade a grand jury to indict a man who threw a submarine sandwich at a federal agent earlier this month, sources told the New York Times.

Sean C. Dunn, a former Justice Department paralegal, was charged with assaulting a federal officer on August 13. In a now-viral video, Dunn can be seen throwing the sandwich at the officer after calling a group of officers “fascists,” and yelling, “I don’t want you in my city!”

Dunn was fired by the Department of Justice after the video spread.

“You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on August 14.

Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host and newly appointed top prosecutor in D.C., promised Dunn would face felony charges. She gleefully told him to “stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else” in a video shared on social media earlier this month. 

Grand juries rarely refuse to indict, since prosecutors control the information shared with the jurors. And Dunn readily admitted to the sandwich-slinging. According to the criminal complaint against Dunn, he told police, “I did it. I threw the sandwich.” The decision not to indict could be indicative of growing anger over the Trump administration’s federal takeover.

President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to the nation’s capital and seized control of the city’s police department in response to what he called “out of control” crime. Earlier this week, Trump questioned whether authoritarian actions make him a “dictator.”

“So the line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “So, a lot of people say, you know, ‘If that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’ But I’m not a dictator. I just had to stop crime.”

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