Federal prosecutors have failed to obtain a felony indictment against a U.S. Air Force veteran who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official in the nation’s capital, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on an assault charge after he threw a sub-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent. A video of the incident went viral, and shortly after he was fired from the Justice Department, where he worked as an international affairs specialist in the department’s criminal division.
According to service records obtained by Military Times, Dunn entered the Air Force in July 2006 and separated in May 2011. His assignments include a deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan, from July 2010 to January 2011. He received more than a dozen awards during his service, including the Korean Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Air Force Good Conduct Medal.
The case is one of the examples of the legal pushback to President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington that has led to more than 1,000 arrests. It is highly unusual for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment, and it was once said that prosecutors could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”
Grand jurors decide in secret proceedings whether there is enough evidence for an indictment, and prosecutors could go back to try again in Dunn’s case. The person briefed on the failure to obtain an indictment against Dunn on Tuesday was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was sent Wednesday to a spokesperson for the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case. An attorney for Dunn declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported the development.
Dunn’s arrest came in one of the first days after Trump’s Aug. 11 order for federal agents and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say Dunn approached a group of CBP agents, pointed a finger in an agent’s face and swore at him, calling him a “fascist,” a police affidavit says. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at the agent’s chest, the affidavit says.
“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.
Dunn tried to run away but was apprehended, police said. He was initially released and then was rearrested by federal agents. A video of agents going to arrest and handcuff him was posted online by an official White House X account.
Defense lawyers and at least one federal judge have raised concerns over the federal government’s handling of arrests on charges that, in many cases, would typically be handled by local authorities instead of federal prosecutors. One magistrate judge this week scolded prosecutors over a case against a man who was jailed for a week before prosecutors decided to drop the case. The judge called it “the most illegal search I have ever seen in my life.”
In another recent case, prosecutors in Washington acknowledged that three grand juries had voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outside the city’s jail in July, where she was recording video of the transfer of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Rebuffed by the grand juries, Pirro’s office is pursuing a misdemeanor assault charge against Sydney Lori Reid instead.
Military Times reporter Carla Babb and Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.
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