Former Fox News host and current top Washington prosecutor Jeanine Pirro published a video Wednesday, accompanied by: “Assault a law enforcement officer, and you’ll be prosecuted. This guy thought it was funny — well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged him with a felony.”
The guy in question is Sean Charles Dunn. I don’t know what he thought, or thinks, but he was charged in a criminal complaint under federal law 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1), which prohibits assaulting, resisting or impeding certain U.S. officers and employees.
The complaint’s attached statement of facts from a detective alleges that Dunn began shouting late Sunday at U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Gregory Lairmore, who is subsequently referred to as “V-1” for being the alleged victim. The statement says Dunn “stood within inches of V-1, pointed his finger in V-1’s face, and yelled, ‘F— you! You f—ing fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!’” The statement further alleges that Dunn “approached V-1 and threw a sandwich at him, striking V-1 in the chest” after “winding his arm back and forcefully throwing” the “sub-style sandwich.”
The statement concludes by saying Dunn “attempted to flee on foot but was apprehended” and that he later told an officer: “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”
That’s the alleged assault that Pirro chose to spotlight amid President Donald Trump’s fixation on crime in the nation’s capital. His administration still hasn’t released all the information it has on Jeffrey Epstein, instead choosing to move convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to a more comfortable prison after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was previously Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer. Maxwell, who received a 20-year sentence after being convicted of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, is seeking to join the ranks of Jan. 6 defendants and others who have received clemency from Trump.
Speaking of Jan. 6, for anyone paying attention over the last several years, the phrase “assault a law enforcement officer,” paired with the topic of crime in Washington, D.C., evokes images of the Trump-spurred attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, in connection with the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump that the latter and his supporters wouldn’t acknowledge. One of those supporters, Pirro, was with Fox News at the time, and her on-air comments about the election were featured in civil defamation lawsuits, including Dominion Voting Systems’ suit that was settled for $787.5 million. As for Jan. 6 itself, Pirro initially condemned the attack but later called rioters “hostages” who were jailed for their “political beliefs,” and she endorsed criminally investigating the prosecutors.
Trump, of course, began his second presidential term this year by issuing blanket clemency to convicted Jan. 6 defendants and ordering the Justice Department to dismiss pending cases.
His proclamation said his move “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” Among the proclamation’s beneficiaries were hundreds of people charged with assaulting law enforcement, including under (among others) the statute on which the new complaint against Dunn rests.
On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi further highlighted Dunn’s case, writing that she had just learned he worked at DOJ but that he is now “FIRED” in addition to facing a felony charge. “If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi wrote, calling Dunn an example of the “Deep State” the administration has been fighting.
She concluded: “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
The attorney general’s concluding line about not working in the administration while disrespecting law enforcement is notable in light of (among other things) the administration’s hiring of Jared Wise. My colleague Steve Benen recently highlighted that Wise had urged fellow rioters to “kill” the officers defending the Capitol and called them “Nazi” and “Gestapo.” The DOJ called Wise “a valued member of the Justice Department.”
Perhaps Bondi was careful to word her statement to solely render disqualifying any law enforcement disrespect “while” working for the administration, relegating Wise’s disrespect to the past. That is, if she considers his past actions to have been disrespectful.
As for Dunn, he’s entitled to the same due process that Jan. 6 defendants received — and they wound up getting more than that in the end from Trump’s blanket clemency and dismissal order.
It’s too early to know how Dunn’s case will end, but it won’t be entirely up to the administration, which seems intent on making an example of him. How it ends could partly be up to the judiciary and, if it gets that far, a trial jury. Initially, any felony case would need to get through a grand jury to move forward. Given the relatively low evidentiary bar in the grand jury, it’s been said that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. So an initial question if the DOJ presses such a case is whether D.C. grand jurors present an obstacle in this literal sandwich case.
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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
