The Washington, D.C., man accused of hurling a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent is insisting the act was done out of protest - not a violent attack - in the first days of his federal trial.
Sean Dunn is facing charges of allegedly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer, according to The Associated Press. At the time of the alleged incident, Dunn was employed at the Justice Department as an international affairs specialist in its criminal division.
The charges stem from an alleged incident in which Dunn is accused of throwing a sandwich at federal agents in protest of President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 10.
"No matter who you are, you can't just go around throwing stuff at people because you're mad," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parron said at the beginning of Dunn's trial on a misdemeanor assault charge on Monday.
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While Dunn does not dispute that he threw the sandwich at a CBP officer outside a nightclub, his legal team is insisting 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. "He is overwhelmingly not guilty."
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 Washington, D.C., with federal agents.
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"He did it. He threw the sandwich," Gatto told the jury. "And now the U.S. 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."
However, Parron hit back at Dunn's attorney's claims.
"Respectfully, that's not what this case is about," Parron said. "You just can't do what the defendant did here. He crossed a line."
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A grand jury previously declined to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office ultimately deciding to bring a misdemeanor charge against him.
The government's first witness, CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore, took the stand to describe how the sandwich "exploded" when it struck his chest, hitting him hard enough that he felt it through his ballistic vest.
"You could smell the onions and the mustard," Lairmore added.
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Lairmore testified that he was standing outside of a local nightclub with a group of CBP agents when Dunn approached them, allegedly yelling profanities while calling the group "fascists" and "racists" as officers attempted to de-escalate the situation.
"He was red-faced. Enraged. Calling me and my colleagues all kinds of names," Lairmore said. "I didn't respond. That's his constitutional right to express his opinion."
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Dunn allegedly fled the scene after throwing the sandwich, but was apprehended a few blocks away. During the trial, jurors watched body camera video of Dunn's arrest.
"I was trying to draw them away from where they were," Dunn said on the video. "I succeeded."
Dunn's attorney and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
