A grand jury declined to indict a protester who threw a sandwich at a federal agent—which is now becoming increasingly common in Trump’s Washington.
Key Facts
A grand jury in Washington declined to indict Sean Dunn, a former Justice Department employee who was charged with assaulting a federal officer after he threw a “sub-style” sandwich at a federal immigration agent, The New York Times first reported.
The reported grand jury action came after the Trump administration previously failed three times to get a grand jury to bring charges against a Washington woman who was charged with assaulting an FBI agent, after the woman allegedly tried to forcibly stop immigration officials from taking two people into federal custody.
Prosecutors present evidence to grand juries in cases where a defendant faces felony charges, and the jurors then decide whether an indictment can be brought—with the Times noting it’s extremely rare for them to reject the request to indict.
The grand jury process is heavily biased in favor of prosecutors, who can present whatever evidence they want to the jury, so it’s notable to have grand juries routinely rejecting the government’s cases.
But it’s becoming more commonplace as Trump sends the military to Democratic-leaning cities: Grand juries also rejected indictments against protesters when the National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported in July, noting that out of the more than three dozen people who were targeted with federal charges, only seven were actually indicted.
The Trump administration’s failure to secure indictments come as U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has directed prosecutors to seek the harshest charges possible against people who are arrested in Washington—but prosecutors are now having to either reduce or drop charges altogether as they fail in court, the Times notes.
