·testsSandwich-hurling tester in DC only charged with misdemeanor, disappointing Trump’s plans to make him a felonBy Alanna Durkin RicherBy The Associated PressBy Alanna Durkin RicherBy The Associated Press Posters of a person throwing a sandwich are pictured along H Street, Sunday, Aug.
17, 2025, in Washington. AP Photo/Julia Demaree NikhinsonA man captured on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal agent in D.C.
has been charged with a misdemeanor offense after secutors failed to convince a grand jury to return a more serious felony indictment, according to court papers filed Thursday.
The move is a blow to the Trump administration, which had highlighted the felony assault case against Sean Charles Dunn to show it would aggressively secute violence against law enforcement — even after Trump pardoned Jan.
6 rioters who brutally attacked officers with poles and other makeshift weapons. The White House had spotlighted Dunn’s case with a dramatic social media of his arrest by federal agents.
And Washington’s top federal secutor, Jeanine Pirro, also touted the felony charge in another social media , saying into the camera: “So there, stick your subway sandwich somewhere else.” Dunn is now charged with simple assault, which carries up to one year behind bars.
Misdemeanor charges don’t require secutors to go to a grand jury. The felony assault charge calls for up to eight years behind bars. Dunn’s attorney didn’t immediately return an seeking .
It’s so rare for a grand jury not to return an indictment that there’s an old saying that secutors could convince a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.” But grand juries have declined to return indictments a handful of times in recent weeks in Washington — a potential sign of residents’ frustration with the law enforcement operation that has led to federal charges in many cases that would typically be handled in local court.
A of Dunn throwing the sandwich at the chest of the agent who was patrolling the nation’s capital went viral in the first days after Trump’s Aug.
11 order for federal agents and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say he also pointed a finger in an agent’s face and swore at him, calling him a “fascist.” “Why are you here?
I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police. Dunn tried to run away but was appreh, police said.
He was initially released and later arrested by federal agents on the felony assault charge.
It was later revealed that he had been working as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division, though he was swiftly fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In another recent case, secutors in Washington acknowledged that three grand juries had voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outside the city’s jail in July, where she was recording of the transfer of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Rebuffed by the grand juries, Pirro’s office is pursuing a misdemeanor assault charge against Sydney Lori Reid instead.
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