Sub-stantial evidence.
The Customs and Border Protection agent on the receiving end of a Subway footlong flung by a former Justice Department employee testified Tuesday that the sandwich “exploded all over” him and he could feel the impact through his bulletproof vest.
Sean Charles Dunn, 37, is on trial and facing a misdemeanor assault charge for slinging the sandwich at CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore outside a Washington, DC, nightclub in August — an incident the accused’s lawyer acknowledged took place but argued was blown out of proportion.
“I could feel it through my ballistic vest,” Lairmore said of the moment of impact. “It kind of exploded all over.
“You could smell the onions and the mustard,” he added.
Lairmore claimed he later found an onion dangling on his police radio and discovered the mustard from the airborne hoagie had left a stain on his shirt.
He also revealed that his coworkers gave him joke gifts after the incident, including a “felony footlong” patch and a plush sandwich he put “on top of my shelf in the office,” CNN reported.
In her opening statement, defense attorney Julia Gatto told jurors the sandwich toss was an “exclamation point” for Dunn, and an action carried out in protest of President Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital.
“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” Gatto argued. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.
“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” she added. “And now the US Attorney for the District of Columbia has turned that moment — a thrown sandwich — into a criminal case, a federal criminal case charging a federal offense.”
Dunn, who worked as a DOJ paralegal, was fired after video of the sandwich throw and his attempt to evade capture went viral.
“This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post announcing Dunn’s termination.“You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
Dunn was initially hit with felony charges by DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, but a grand jury refused to hand up an indictment.
“No matter who you are, you can’t just go around throwing stuff at people because you’re mad,” Assistant US Attorney John Parron told jurors.
The prosecutor argued that whether or not Dunn threw the sub in protest of Trump’s DC crime crackdown, the action “crossed a line.”
“Respectfully, that’s not what this case is about,” Parron said. “You just can’t do what the defendant did here.”
It is unclear if Dunn will take the stand when his trial resumes Wednesday.
With Post wires
