An ex-US attorney slammed a current one Saturday for adamantly pursuing a farcical case she said should never have been prosecuted.
Barbara McQuade wrote for MSNBC about the case of Sean Dunn, an Air Force veteran who threw a Subway sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent, which she wrote had become a striking example of prosecutorial overreach and resource misallocation.
And President Donald Trump's pick for Washington, D.C. US attorney, ex-Fox star Jeanine Pirro, was hammered for heading the investigation.
"Pirro should have known better than to file assault charges because the facts didn’t satisfy the elements of the offense," McQuade wrote in a column titled, "US Attorney Jeanine Pirro wasted our money pursuing sandwich thrower."
"To prove an assault under the federal statute, the prosecution must establish not just that Dunn threw the sandwich at the agent, but that the act constituted a 'forcible assault.'"
A Subway sandwich bouncing off an agent clad in body armor certainly didn't meet that standard, she wrote.
Dunn admitted to throwing the sandwich as an act of protest against President Trump's federal law enforcement surge into Washington, D.C. The jury ultimately agreed with his defense, returning a not-guilty verdict.
The prosecution's case hinged on proving a "forcible assault," which legally requires demonstrating a "reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm." However, the evidence and testimony made this claim seem ridiculous, McQuade wrote.
She wrote that defense attorney Sabrina Shroff masterfully dismantled the prosecution's argument, declaring, "A footlong from Subway could not and certainly did not inflict bodily harm." When Dunn threw the sandwich, it hit the agent's bulletproof vest, prompting laughter in the courtroom when the agent testified about sandwich "explosions" and condiment stains.
Shroff's closing argument was particularly pointed: "If the vest is designed to protect an agent from gunfire, it is definitely going to keep you safe from a sandwich."
Pirro defended the prosecution, stating, "Even children know when they are angry, they are not allowed to throw objects at one another." However, the article argues that not every inappropriate action warrants criminal charges.
But McQuade wrote the prosecution's approach raised serious questions about resource allocation. The federal government invested significant time and effort in a high-profile arrest, even posting video of Dunn's arrest on social media - a violation of Justice Department policy.
Dunn had already suffered professional consequences, losing his job as a paralegal at the Department of Justice. The criminal prosecution seemed unnecessary and potentially distracting from more serious cases that might have gone unaddressed, McQuade wrote.