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https://apnews.com/article/sandwich-throwing-trial-justice-department-a2776c568a1ea4b8ce5b6af606669b63
WASHINGTON — The D.C. man accused of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent with a Subway sandwich was found not guilty by a jury Thursday, the culmination of a three-month criminal case that was both an absurd spectacle and a deeply serious clash over protest and prosecution in the Trump era.
Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran and former Justice Department paralegal, faced up to a year in jail for hurling what became known as the hoagie heard around the world. His acquittal following a two-day trial amounts to a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s immigration and crime crackdown in Washington, as well as another embarrassing legal setback for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom he appointed.
Viral video from Aug. 10 showed Dunn shouting at the Border Patrol agent, Gregory Lairmore, before heaving a sandwich at his chest, running away and getting arrested after a brief foot chase. With anger brewing across the city over Trump’s takeover of city policing and deployment of the National Guard, Dunn quickly grew into a footlong folk hero and symbol of anti-Trump resistance.
Pirro’s office initially pursued a felony assault charge against Dunn, but a grand jury rebuffed prosecutors by declining to return an indictment. Eager to project the president’s tough-on-protest image, Pirro declined to drop the case and proceeded with a less serious misdemeanor charge that resulted in this week’s trial.
Prosecutors were gambling that jurors in liberal Washington would find that Dunn’s actions amounted to an “assault,” even though he was being widely celebrated and the case mocked as a joke.
WASHINGTON — The D.C. man accused of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent with a Subway sandwich was found not guilty by a jury Thursday, the culmination of a three-month criminal case that was both an absurd spectacle and a deeply serious clash over protest and prosecution in the Trump era.
Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran and former Justice Department paralegal, faced up to a year in jail for hurling what became known as the hoagie heard around the world. His acquittal following a two-day trial amounts to a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s immigration and crime crackdown in Washington, as well as another embarrassing legal setback for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom he appointed.
Viral video from Aug. 10 showed Dunn shouting at the Border Patrol agent, Gregory Lairmore, before heaving a sandwich at his chest, running away and getting arrested after a brief foot chase. With anger brewing across the city over Trump’s takeover of city policing and deployment of the National Guard, Dunn quickly grew into a footlong folk hero and symbol of anti-Trump resistance.
Pirro’s office initially pursued a felony assault charge against Dunn, but a grand jury rebuffed prosecutors by declining to return an indictment. Eager to project the president’s tough-on-protest image, Pirro declined to drop the case and proceeded with a less serious misdemeanor charge that resulted in this week’s trial.
Prosecutors were gambling that jurors in liberal Washington would find that Dunn’s actions amounted to an “assault,” even though he was being widely celebrated and the case mocked as a joke.
