After a grand jury failed to return a felony indictment against the Washington, DC, man accused of throwing a sub-style sandwich at a law enforcement officer in the first days of Trump’s federal takeover of the city, federal prosecutors on Thursday filed a lesser misdemeanor charge.
Prosecutors filed the charges Thursday, two weeks after the initial complaint was filed against the man, Sean Charles Dunn, a former Justice Department attorney who was fired immediately following his arrest.
Dunn, prosecutors have alleged, threw a sub-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer one evening in early August, calling them “fascists” and yelling and cursing at the officers gathered.
His attorney declined to comment on the charge.
The office of US Attorney Jeanine Pirro did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
Previously, the Justice Department said in court it was charging Dunn with a felony assault charge but, after a grand jury declined to hand up an indictment in the case, have now filed a lesser misdemeanor charge, cutting the maximum sentence from 8 years in jail to 1 year.
Since prosecutors filed the charges by information – instead of by complaint as they previously did – they can skirt around using a grand jury and instead go right to the judge, who would need to decide whether there is probable cause and the case can proceed.
Dunn has not entered a plea, and his case has been passed to a federal judge in DC, who will preside over the case.
Dunn was arrested on August 10, right after he allegedly threw the sandwich. He was then released the next morning, his attorney said in court earlier this month, and attempted to get an attorney to turn himself in when he learned of a warrant for his arrest.
Instead, 20 officers came to Dunn’s apartment and arrested him there, his attorney told the magistrate judge initially in charge of the case.
Her assertions would later be proven when the White House posted a propaganda film of decked-out deputy US Marshals and other law enforcement, including FBI agents, showing up at Dunn’s door with guns drawn and a riot shield deployed to arrest him.
At the time of Dunn’s arrest, Pirro celebrated in a video shared on X, “We’re going to back the police to the hilt. So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else.”
The magistrate judge released Dunn, finding that he did not pose a threat to the community.
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