Federal prosecutors have failed to receive a felony indictment towards a man who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official in the nation’s capital, an individual aware of the matter advised the Associated Press.
Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on an assault cost 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, the place he labored as a world affairs specialist in the division’s felony division.
The case is among the examples of the authorized pushback to President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington, DC, that has led to greater than 1,000 arrests. It is very uncommon for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment, and it was as soon as stated that prosecutors may persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”
Grand jurors determine in secret proceedings whether or not there’s sufficient proof for an indictment, and prosecutors may return to attempt once more in Dunn’s case. The particular person briefed on the failure to receive an indictment towards Dunn on Tuesday was not licensed to publicly focus on the matter and spoke on situation of anonymity.
A message searching for remark was despatched Wednesday to a spokesperson for the highest federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose workplace is prosecuting the case. An legal professional for Dunn declined to remark.
The New York Times first reported the event.
Dunn’s arrest got here in one of many first days after Trump’s August 11 order for federal brokers and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say Dunn approached a gaggle of CBP brokers, 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 on the agent’s chest, the affidavit says.
“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, in accordance to police.
Dunn tried to run away however was apprehended, police stated. He was initially launched after which was rearrested by federal brokers. A video of brokers going to arrest and handcuff him was posted on-line by an official White House X account.
Defense legal professionals and not less than one federal decide have raised issues over the federal authorities’s dealing with of arrests on fees that, in many instances, would usually be dealt with by native authorities as an alternative of federal prosecutors. One Justice of the Peace decide this week scolded prosecutors over a case against a person who was jailed for per week earlier than prosecutors determined to drop the case. The decide known as it “the most illegal search I have ever seen in my life.”
In one other current case, prosecutors in Washington acknowledged that three grand juries had voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outdoors the town’s jail in July, the place she was recording video of the switch of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. Rebuffed by the grand juries, Pirro’s workplace is pursuing a misdemeanor assault cost towards Sydney Lori Reid as an alternative.