Deadline: Legal Blog--D.C. grand jurors send stark message to Pirro and Trump in sandwich case

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The people of Washington, D.C., are rejecting the administration’s use of the criminal law as a show of force in the nation’s capital.

D.C. grand jurors send stark message to Pirro and Trump in sandwich case www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

— (@jwwcan.bsky.social) 2025-08-27T19:12:30.802Z

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/dc-sandwich-thrower-sean-charles-dunn-grand-jury-rcna227549

When I wrote about the shocking triple failure of prosecutors in Washington, D.C., to secure an indictment in the case of an alleged assault against a federal agent, I noted that the rejection raised the prospect that the case against sandwich thrower Sean Charles Dunn “might not make it past the grand jury stage, either.”

That prospect may have been realized Tuesday, when a grand jury refused to approve a felony charge against him, as The New York Times reported Wednesday......

While the Sidney Reid case is eye-popping due to the number of times (three) that D.C. grand jurors refused to approve a felony case against her, Dunn’s case could signal something at least as significant in response to the Trump administration’s show of force.

After his arrest earlier this month, the administration sought to make an example of the man who, notably, was working for the Justice Department. According to the initial complaint and statement of facts filed against him, Dunn allegedly called federal agents “fascists,” said he didn’t want them “in my city” and “str[uck]” an immigration agent in the chest with a “sub-style sandwich.”......

In his case and others, the DOJ would do well to bear in mind what Reid’s lawyers said in connection with her now-reduced prosecution. They said they’re “anxious to present the misdemeanor case to a jury and to quickly clear Ms. Reid’s name,” and that Pirro “can try to concoct crimes to quiet the people, but in our criminal justice system, the citizens have the last word.”

The last words haven’t been spoken yet in these cases. But the first words the citizens of D.C. are speaking should ring loudly in the administration’s ears. They seem to echo Dunn’s alleged cry, “I don’t want you in my city!”

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The elites that have seized the government are on a power trip

They are quite vulnerable unless they can squelch everything. Do not forget that idea and look for opportunities.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. They are heroes. These tyrants know who they are.

[underpants]

3. They went back? THREE TIMES? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[tulipsandroses]

4. Whats that saying about indicting a ham sandwich??

LOL

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Deadline: Legal Blog-It matters why the grand jury in D.C. declined to indict sandwich thrower Sean Dunn

There are different ways of reading the stunning action by a Washington grand jury amid Trump’s federal crackdown on the nation’s capital.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/dc-sandwich-thrower-grand-jury-indictment-decline-matters-rcna227748

We know that a grand jury in Washington refused to indict sandwich thrower Sean Dunn. But we don’t necessarily know why.

It’s a stunning result with serious implications no matter what motivated the rejection. Yet, what those implications are, exactly, could depend on the rationale for refusing to approve a felony charge against the man who became a folk hero in D.C. amid the Trump administration’s federal crackdown in the nation’s capital......

But something bigger may have been at play: jury nullification. That’s when jurors believe that prosecutors have proved the technical elements of the case but, nonetheless, the jury renders a moral objection by way of a not guilty verdict (or in the case of a grand jury, a “no true bill”).

To put the question one way: Did grand jurors think the government did a bad job, or a bad thing?.....

Importantly, we have more than Dunn’s case to go on in analyzing this phenomenon. There’s the even more shocking recent failure of D.C. prosecutors to get an indictment against Sidney Reid a whopping three times. She was initially charged under the same federal assault statute as Dunn. After striking out in the grand jury, prosecutors reduced her case to a misdemeanor, which doesn’t require grand jury approval.

Let’s assume for a moment that grand jurors in both the Dunn and Reid cases just thought there wasn’t enough proof to charge them with felonies. The known facts of both cases certainly allow for that possibility. Through that lens, the message to prosecutors is that they need to more carefully evaluate the quality of cases they bring.

But if the message is that the people of D.C. are declining to approve charges despite the evidence presented to them, that’s something that should worry prosecutors even more.

I am personally voting that both cases are jury nullification and Piro needs to worry if she takes these cases to trial.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. DC is TIRED of the federal takeover, and they're letting everyone know!

Link to tweet

DC is TIRED of the federal takeover, and they're letting everyone know!

3 days ago a DC Grand Jury declined to indict a woman for assaulting an ICE agent (a scratch on his hand).

Today another grand jury declined to indict the guy who threw a sub at an ICE agent!

FREE DC!