DC Subway sandwich thrower avoids grand jury indictment

Federal prosecutors failed to obtain a grand jury indictment against a former Department of Justice employee who allegedly hurled a Subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who President Donald Trump had deployed in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. has sought to charge the man, Sean Charles Dunn, with felony assault of an officer for the Aug. 10 sub-chucking incident, which was caught on video. The DOJ fired Dunn after his arrest.

NBC News reported Wednesday that two people familiar with the matter said that a grand jury failed to indict Dunn in the case, which was heavily touted by Trump administration law-enforcement officials.

It is not clear if prosecutors will try again to obtain an indictment of Dunn or lodge another charging instrument against him, known as an “information.”

The DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Dunn’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

The New York Times first reported that the grand jury had not issued a true bill, or indictment of Dunn.

It is extremely rare for a grand jury to decline to return an indictment when a prosecutor requests one after presenting evidence of an alleged crime.

And it is even rarer in a high-profile case hat the government has touted in media statements, as the DOJ did after Dunn’s arrest.

The result in Dunn’s case is the second time in three days that a grand jury has rejected an indictment request by the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host appointed by Trump.

On Monday, Pirro’s office told a judge in a separate criminal case that “an Indictment has not been returned” after “a third grand jury returned a no true bill.”

The sandwich stand-off took place as Trump has clamped down on the nation’s capital to quickly eradicate what he claims is out-of-control crime in the city.

He invoked a never-before-used legal power to temporarily take over the D.C. police department and ordered a deployment of 800 National Guard members to the city. His administration also ramped up the presence of federal agents on the streets to assist in crime prevention.