Yet another angry authoritarian, vindictive malicious criminal prosecution is in shreds.
Sandwich did not "explode" on these of heavily padded Customs and Border Patrol Agent, who joked about it. He was not a crime victim.
No "reasonable" belief in harm from sandwich.
Prosecutor JEANNE FERRIS PIRRO is a joke, a time-wasting termagant loudmouth and performative faux Fox News troll. PIRRO should never have been appointed the United Staes Attorney for the District of Columbia.
"Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue." --François VI, due de La Rochefoucauld)
Histrionic United States Attorney for the District of Columbia JEANNE FERRIS PIRRO, the former judge and former Fox News propagandist, emitted oceans and oodles of emotion: dingbat DJT toady prosecutes an Air Force veteran and former Justice Department paralegal, Mr. Sean C. Dunn for felony assault with a sandwich The Washington, D.C. Federal Grand Jury repeatedly declined to indict Mr. Dunn. More here: https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/08/annals-of-trumpitan-prosecutors-fail-to.html
On November 6, 2025, a Washington, D.C. trial jury acquitted Sean Dunn of misdemeanor assault charges. DONALD JOHN TRUMP pardoned some 1200 January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol Rioters, including some 140 cases of actual assaults on our United States Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers.
From The New York Times:
Jurors Find Sandwich Hurler Not Guilty of Assault
The verdict on a misdemeanor charge came after seven hours of deliberation, and after prosecutors had previously failed to secure a felony indictment.
Reporting from Washington
Sean C. Dunn, the man who pitched a sandwich at the chest of a federal agent in a viral act of opposition to President Trump's law enforcement policies in Washington, was acquitted on Thursday after a jury found him not guilty of misdemeanor assault.
The verdict, which arrived after the jury deliberated for roughlyseven hours, capped a nearly three-month effort to penalize Mr. Dunn for the August outburst and the resulting chase to arrest him, after the government previously failed to persuade a grand jury to charge him with a felony.
It marked a significant setback for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, who made Mr. Dunn’s case a centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s aggressive policing and prosecuting scheme in the city.
The jury determined that the launching of the 12-inch deli sandwich from what the government described as “point-blank range” was not an attempt to cause injury.
The verdict followed a three-day trial focused primarily on whether Mr. Dunn, a former paralegal in the Justice Department, had impeded federal agents while they patrolled a row of nightclubs in Washington as part of the citywide law enforcement surge ordered by Mr. Trump. Mr. Dunn joined scores of other city residents swept up in the effort, which produced an increase in stops and arrests by armed troops and federal agents, and an ensuing wave of federal prosecutions over low-level street crime.
But Mr. Dunn’s case stood out for several reasons.
Soon after his arrest, videos of him winding up his arm and sending a wilting Subway sandwich into the armored vest plate of Gregory Lairmore, a Customs and Border Protection agent, were shared and celebrated by the president’s detractors. The video inspired street art in Washington and memes and tributes online.
After Mr. Dunn was released from police custody in August, he was rearrested by U.S. marshals, who filmed agents in tactical gear raiding his apartment and put together an edited video of his arrest that was shared by the White House on social media.
His local folk hero stature grew after the U.S. attorney’s office run by Ms. Pirro, a former Fox News host and a close ally of the president’s, announced plans to charge Mr. Dunn with felony assault. Attorney General Pam Bondi also seized on the incident online, citing Mr. Dunn’s career in government as “an example of the Deep State we have been up against.”
Top officials under Ms. Pirro, including Jonathan Hornok, the head of the office’s criminal division, sat in court this week watching arguments unfold.
When federal prosecutors in August tried to persuade a grand jury to approve a felony assault charge against Mr. Dunn, a majority of grand jurors refused, a highly unusual rejection. Top officials in the Trump administration had already publicized and celebrated the prosecution for days. The government then refiled the charge as a misdemeanor.
A lawyer for the government, Michael DiLorenzo, told jurors during his closing statement on Wednesday that under the definition of assault provided by Judge Carl J. Nichols, they could consider Mr. Dunn guilty if they believed he had interfered with the law enforcement officers in a variety of ways.
“This case is not about someone with strong opinions, not about immigration. It’s not about freedom of speech,” he said. “It’s about an individual who crossed a line.”
He pointed to a video caught by a police officer’s body camera in which Mr. Dunn took credit for throwing the sandwich, adding that he had “succeeded” in drawing agents away from their position.
Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer for Mr. Dunn, countered by playing a video in which Mr. Dunn could be seen warning onlookers that the agents were stationed on that particular corner in Washington because a nearby gay bar was hosting a “Latin night.” He could also be seen shouting that the 10 assembled agents were gearing up for a raid. But no raid was planned, she said.
“You can’t interfere with something that was never going to happen,” she said.
Ms. Shroff described the case to jurors as profoundly unserious.
She showed a photo of the sandwich intact on the ground and in a wrapper after Mr. Dunn threw it, challenging the agent who had testified on Tuesday that the hoagie had “exploded” on his chest. She reminded jurors of “gag gifts” Mr. Lairmore received from colleagues, which included a “felony footlong” badge he kept on his lunchbox after the incident.
“If someone assaulted you, someone offended you, would you keep a memento of that assault?” she said. “Would you stick it on your daily lunchbox and carry it around with you?”
Even when prosecuted as a misdemeanor, assault on a federal officer can carry considerable penalties, particularly for someone working in government. A conviction for Mr. Dunn, who had worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division, could have led to him being barred from future government work. It could also have precluded work for nongovernmental organizations that receive federal funding.
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
From George Washington University Hatchet:
‘Sandwich guy’ icon hangs next to DC’s long history of protest art
Images of a man with his arm drawn back, hurling a sandwich, have been stenciled, plastered, erased and repainted on surfaces across the District since August.
What the portrait, which harkens political street artist Banksy’s “Flower Thrower,” captures is just a snapshot of the frustrations felt by Washingtonians that prompted former Department of Justice employee Sean Charles Dunn to throw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent on Aug. 10. The incident went viral, with spray paint and poster installations of “sandwich guy” cropping up all over D.C. — next to Call Your Mother in the West End, in Adams Morgan and in Georgetown — and posts across X, TikTok and popular Instagram account WashingtonianProbs.
Protest, unrest and unease have rippled through the District since President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. on Aug. 11 after declaring a “crime emergency” and taking federal control of the city.
On Aug. 10 Sean Charles Dunn was videotaped having a heated altercation with Customs and Border Protection agents, which ended with him pitching the sub sandwich in his hand at the agent. Federal prosecutors attempted to file a felony indictment against Dunn, a former Department of Justice staffer, but a grand jury returned the indictment on Aug. 26 and federal prosecutors filed lesser charges.
Since then Dunn’s sandwich slam has become the face of D.C. citizens’ discontent with the Trump administration’s federal takeover in the District. Cleaning crews have been taking down posters only for the images to be speedily put back up without a trace of the artist’s identity.
After the art piece made its debut, it has become a ubiquitous symbol around D.C., with local artists selling the image emblazoned on stickers, shirts and other merchandise. Additional posters with the man throwing the sandwich and landing on the heads of figures like U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro have also been spotted in D.C.
Protest art has long been woven into the fabric of D.C. Black Lives Matter Plaza, a street installation of the words “Black Lives Matter” in bright yellow paint was originally created by D.C. native and artist Keyonna Jones in 2020 and was made permanent with the help of D.C. officials in 2020. Jones made the piece in response to Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept the nation in 2020 in order to bring awareness to the movement and show the District’s support for Black Lives Matter.
In the wake of COVID-19 store closures, Gallery Place neighborhood citizens came together to paint murals on boarded-up storefronts in order to unite the community. The murals ultimately became an exhibit in the National Building Museum called “Murals That Matter: Activism Through Public Art” in August 2020.
This past summer, the National Mall has been the stage for protest art against Trump’s policies, including the ‘Dictator Approved’ sculpture that appeared this past June, depicting a golden thumb crushing the head of the Statue of Liberty. The same anonymous artist sculpted a poop statue on top of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s desk displayed in October 2024 on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, where it “honored” the Jan. 6 rioters who broke into the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Professors who study art history and politics said protest art is meant to publicly bring attention to relevant political issues, with the “sandwich guy” art cleverly highlighting District residents’ resistance against the presence of National Guard in the city.
Lisa Lipinski, associate professor of art history, said artists have become involved with political movements in the District through creating pieces that point toward and bring attention to advocating for causes or pointing messages toward officials.
“So kind of meant to be ironic, but I saw it as protest art, and it was placed on the National Mall outside of the Capitol,” Lipinski said. “I think that was deliberate.”
Lipinski said protest art in the District has been increasingly prevalent since President Joe Biden’s election in 2020, as Americans have protested what “Trump started” and even at the Women’s March in 2016 with posters and knitted pink hats.
“It’s a range of responses you can have from disgust to laughter to inspiring action,” Lipinski said.
Lipinski said the symbol of the man in the painting, Dunn, has come to represent the movement against the presence of the National Guard in the District.
“I think he’s now the masked face of resistance, and especially as we get these masked ICE agents arresting people and deporting them,” Lipinski said.
Lipinski said although she has seen pieces of protest art, especially that of the “sandwich guy” circulating on social media, it is important to have a “physical manifestation” of the art in a public space to emphasize messages from activists, artists and organizers, for all to see.
“The other thing about the present protest art is it is ephemeral,” Lipinski said. “It’ll come back, but maybe it’ll take a different form.”
Christopher Britt, author and professor of Spanish literature at the Department of Romance, German and Slavic Studies has investigated how artists and intellectuals in Spain and Latin America have used movements to respond to political upheaval. Britt said in the history of protest art and literature, many governments used censorship to control information in addition to silencing dissent, including the Spanish-American War of 1898 when writer Mark Twain criticized the United States’ conquest of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
“It takes courage to speak truth to power,” Britt said in an email. “While we certainly do not live in an enlightened age, the presence of protest art suggests we still can opt for enlightenment.”
Britt said the “sandwich guy” piece is a “mediated spectacle,” a sensationalized view of reality, as Dunn has become somewhat of a symbol and local hero for expressing his frustrations. He said protest art is another avenue through which dissent can take place, which has been seen historically in avant-garde movements in the 1900s in Europe and the Americas.
“These movements, in other words, look forward to a time when their specific art of protest will no longer be needed, opening the way to other forms of expression,” Britt said in an email.
Gayle Wald, professor of American Studies, said she characterizes protest art as not only visual but can take material and sonic forms, like sculptures. She said due to the many kinds of context this art can be found in, it is an “amorphous category,” as it can be used for various causes and promote different messages.
She said examples include the “SILENCE = DEATH” movement in the 1980s, where AIDS activists reclaimed the pink triangle symbol that was used in Nazi persecution of gay people, creating a “template” for future protest art. Wald said “I AM A MAN” placards used during African American labor strikes in Memphis were assertions of “personal dignity,” sending messages to onlookers as well as empowering the workers themselves.
“Protest art prompts thought and speaks to people at an emotional level,” Wald said in an email. “It has historically been very useful in facilitating collective dissent — bringing disparate people together in struggle.”
Wald said the “sandwich guy” art has been “witty” and reflects the “outrage” that D.C. residents feel due to Trump’s “theatrics” in declaring an emergency on the city.
“The sandwich is also comic — a way of mocking the federal government’s very serious threats to the civil liberties and safety of DMV residents,” Wald said in an email.
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