A US protester who was charged for using a sandwich to assault a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent was found “not guilty” on Thursday after a jury decided that charges brought by President Donald Trump’s prosecutors were baloney. The verdict in Washington Capitol Square came after 37-year-old Sean Dunn was accused of flinging a “sub-style sandwich” at an armed CBP officer on August 10 in a busy nightlife district following a barrage of shouted expletives, AP news agency reported. Prosecutors initially sought serious felony charges under a campaign ordered by President Trump to crack down on crime in the capital. However, a grand jury refused to indict Dunn on any felony count. A single misdemeanor charge was filed, carrying a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment. Dunn was chased and released immediately after the sandwich-throwing incident, only to be arrested later in a highly publicised White House-announced raid on his home. As video of the altercation went viral, he earned the nickname DC sandwich guy and became a symbol of resistance to the President’s law enforcement measures. Stylised images of him in mid-attack appeared on posters, graffiti, T-shirts and even as a popular Halloween costume. The top Trump-appointed prosecutor in Washington, Jeanine Pirro, has pursued maximum penalties for arrests since taking office, including in Dunn’s case. Media analysis of the President’s crime crackdown shows that many new arrests and indictments have stemmed from minor offences. At the trial’s opening on Monday, Judge Carl J Nichols said he expected proceedings to be brief, declaring “this is the simplest case in the world.” Dunn’s defence did not dispute that he threw the sandwich, but argued that the act did not constitute an offence and described the prosecution as a “blatant abuse of power.” Central to the trial was whether the tossing of a soft object could be deemed “forcible” and whether it impeded the officer’s duties. Dunn, then a Justice Department paralegal, was dismissed from his position after the incident.
