Not guilty. That was the finding of a jury fully acquitting the man charged with assault for throwing his hoagie at a federal officer in Washington, D.C.
The case of the Subway sandwich has come to symbolize how many in the nation's capital feel about the administration's surge of federal law enforcement to the city.
He volunteered to surrender to authorities, but at least 20 federal agents showed up at his apartment to arrest him. Later, the White House posted a highly produced promotional video of the arrest on its X account.
The US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, announced the charges against Dunn in a video saying, “This guy thought it was funny – well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged him with a felony,” the former Fox News host said.
Prosecutors initially tried to charge Dunn with a felony, but a grand jury refused to indict him. Instead, DOJ pursued a less serious misdemeanor count, arguing that Dunn had forcibly assaulted, resisted or impeded the federal agent.
Gregory Lairmore, an agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, testified the sandwich exploded on his bulletproof vest. He said mustard got on his uniform and onion on his radio, even though a photo showed the sandwich on the ground still in its wrapper. The agent’s testimony elicited laughter in the courtroom. The defense lawyers, two former federal public defenders, pointed out the agent kept gag gifts about the incident in his office - a plush toy and a patch that says, felony footlong.
The defense told the jury to use common sense: this was not a weapon hurled with force anywhere near justifying federal charges.
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