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A former Department of Justice worker on trial for throwing a sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C., earlier this year was found not guiltyon Thursday.
Sean Dunn struck a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent (CBP) in the chest with a sandwich in August. He was facing charges of assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer.
Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before reaching a verdict. After it was read, Dunn hugged his lawyers in the courtroom.
“I believe that I was protecting the rights of immigrants. And let us not forget that the Great Seal of the United States says, E Pluribus Unum,” Dunn said after the verdict was read. “That means, from many, one, every life matters, no matter where you came from, no matter how you got here, no matter how you identify, you have the right to live a life that is free.”
During the trial, Dunn’s legal team insisted he threw the sandwich in protest of President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and it was not a violent attack.
Video of the incident quickly went viral, with Dunn being heralded as a hero by residents throughout the city who also opposed Trump’s move to occupy the nation’s capital with federal agents.
Dunn’s lawyers did not dispute that Dunn threw the sandwich at a CBP officer outside a nightclub, though they insisted it was done as an “exclamation point” to express his negative feelings about the National Guard’s deployment within the nation’s capital.
“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” defense attorney Julia Gatto said during the trial. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.”
FORMER DOJ WORKER WHO HURLED SANDWICH AT FEDERAL OFFICER CHARGED WITH MISDEMEANOR
Prosecutors argued that Dunn’s political expressions don’t make him immune from prosecution for assaulting the agent.
Dunn was employed at the Justice Department as an international affairs specialist in its criminal division at the time of the incident.
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After Dunn’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”
Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita, Greg Norman and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
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