A federal grand jury declined to indict a man accused of throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, just days after President Donald Trump announced that his administration would temporarily take over the local police department.
Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on Aug. 10 after confronting a group of law enforcement officers — including Metro Transit Police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents — and yelling profanities, calling them “fascists” and saying, “Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city,” court records show.
Dunn, who prosecutors say later admitted to throwing the sandwich, was charged with one felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and employees of the United States.
After the incident, the 37-year-old D.C. resident was fired from the Justice Department, where he worked as an international affairs specialist in the criminal division.
Federal authorities — including Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro — strongly criticized his alleged actions, which Pirro called “not a joke [but] a serious crime.”
The now-famous “sandwich-throwing” case went viral after it was first shared on social media, turning the “hero with a hero” into a symbol of anti-Trump resistance.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors failed to obtain a felony indictment against him after grand jurors — who decide in secret whether enough evidence exists for an indictment — declined to do so, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The grand jury’s refusal to return an indictment, a highly unusual move, marked the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent.
