Bob Unruh seemed pretty jazzed about the idea of severe consequences for a guy who threw a sandwich in an Aug. 14 WorldNetDaily article:
A man who shouted obscenities and threw a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C., when President Donald Trump decided to address crime in the district by activating the National Guard, was charged with a felony for assaulting an officer, and now has been fired from his job.
“If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you. I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ. You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement,,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
A report at the Blaze described the fired suspect, Sean Charles Dunn, 37, a D.C. resident, as a “deranged DC leftist.”
Dunn was identified in a police complaint as the suspect who screamed obscenities at federal officers and then threw a sandwich at them.
That prompted a felony assault count.
Well, that didn’t quite work out. An Aug. 27 article stolen from the unreliable Gateway Pundit lamented that “A DC grand jury declined to indict the DOJ lawyer charged for throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal agent in DC.” The next day, an anonymously written article whined that the grand jury was purportedly too liberal:
Sean Charles Dunn, 37, a now-former federal employee, was accused of shouting obscenities and throwing a sub sandwich at federal officers in Washington, D.C., striking one officer.
It turns out that a grand jury in that leftist enclave declined to indict him on a charge that presumably fell under “Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees.”
That law bars those who assault, resist, or oppose anyone engaged in official duties, and provides penalties of up to eight years in prison if there’s physical contact “or intent to commit another felony.” It provides that “simple assault” be penalized with a sentence of up to one year.
According to Jonathan Turley, an expert on the U.S. Constitution, law professor at George Washington University, and popular commentator, “The District of Columbia is known as one of the most Democratic and liberal jury pools in the country. However, this may be a case of overcharging in the eyes of the jury.”
Neither Turley nor the anonymous WND writer offered any evidence that anyone on that grand jury was too “leftist.” Dunn was ultimately charged with a misdemeanor, so WND and Turley could rest somewhat easy — though WND hasn’t touched the story since, not even to complain that the incident turned Dunn into something of a folk hero in D.C.