The former Justice Department staffer whose thrown sandwich sparked a viral uproar was acquitted of misdemeanor assault Thursday afternoon, reinforcing growing concerns that Washington, D.C., jurors are increasingly unwilling to convict or bring charges for certain offenders arrested amid President Donald Trump’s federal crime surge.
A jury on Thursday found 37-year-old Sean Charles Dunn not guilty, handing U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro another courtroom defeat as she seeks to prosecute low-level confrontations as federal crimes to reassert order in the nation’s capital. The case had already suffered a major setback when a grand jury refused to indict Dunn on felony assault, prompting prosecutors to pursue the lesser charge at trial.
Prosecutors argued Dunn, known colloquially as the D.C. “sandwich guy,” assaulted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent when he tossed a Subway sandwich at him on Aug. 10 near the U Street nightlife district. Agent Gregory Lairmore testified he felt the impact through his ballistic vest and could “smell the onions and mustard.”
Defense attorneys countered that Dunn’s conduct, as well as his angry words protesting the agents’ presence in the city, amounted to political expression that federal authorities blew wildly out of proportion. Dunn was charged with 18 U.S. Code Section 111, which covers anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with a law enforcement officer.
The trial, which U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols initially predicted would take two days because it was “the simplest case in the world,” stretched to three. Jurors deliberated across two days before acquitting Dunn, a result his lawyers said shows D.C. residents “will not aid a political prosecution.”
Dunn, an international affairs specialist within the DOJ’s criminal division, was fired following the incident, and Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement following his removal, saying “If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you.”
In a statement following the acquittal, Pirro said, “As always, we accept a jury’s verdict; that is the system within which we function.”
“However, law enforcement should never be subjected to assault, no matter how ‘minor’. Even children know when they are angry, they are not allowed to throw objects at one another,” Pirro added.
Dunn told reporters outside the courthouse that he was “relieved and looking forward to moving on with his life,” according to CNN. Dunn added that he “believed he was protecting the rights of immigrants” the night he tossed the sandwich at the agent.
Pirro’s office viewed the case against Dunn as a necessary one to bring in light of an uptick of threats against immigration enforcement officers and agents, despite legal experts warning the threat of up to a year in jail could make the case difficult to justify. All 12 members of the jury voted not to convict Dunn.
The verdict came amid mounting grand jury refusals and acquittals related Trump’s crime crackdown in a city with a heavy Democratic voter base. During last year’s general election, over 90% of the city’s eligible voting population voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
At least eight grand juries have rejected felony charges for individuals arrested over more aggressive forms of protest since August, while judges have dismissed other cases after prosecutors sought to refile them in D.C.’s superior court following setbacks in federal court.
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley posted to X that the decision “seems more like the result of jury nullification than deliberation,” noting Dunn did not deny throwing the sandwich at the officer.
“The message will not only be heard by citizens in Washington but officers that in the District jurors will treat violence as free expression. This was not a serious assault, but it was worthy of a misdemeanor in my view,” Turley said.
Prominent conservative influencer Mike Cernovich also raised claims that the result may have been a product of jury nullification in a post on X, adding that “this shows how every J6 trial was rigged.”
TRIAL FOR ‘SANDWICH GUY’ PRESENTS TEST FOR JEANINE PIRRO FOLLOWING FEDERAL CASE SETBACKS
Pirro’s predecessor under the Biden administration, Matthew Graves, succeeded in securing more than 1,200 convictions of defendants who were charged for various actions and involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, many of which involved misdemeanor charges related to “trespassing” in or around the U.S. Capitol Complex during the protest.
Meanwhile, at least one recent protest defendant who was charged following Trump’s August law enforcement surge of assaulting an FBI agent, Sidney Reid, had a felony version of her charge rejected three times by grand juries, and was found not guilty by a jury misdemeanor charge earlier this month.
