The Justice Department on Thursday fired the man accused of throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal agent in the District of Columbia over the weekend after learning he was one of the agency’s staff members.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Sean Charles Dunn, 37, was booted from his job after he was charged with felony assault of a police officer in the viral confrontation sparked by President Trump’s takeover of policing in the nation’s capital.
“This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” Ms. Bondi wrote on X. “You will not work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
Mr. Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the department’s criminal division, according to The Associated Press.
Court documents said Mr. Dunn faces charges of assaulting federal law enforcement over the caught-on-video altercation late Sunday on the 2000 block of 14th Street Northwest.
The filing said Mr. Dunn got in the face of a Customs and Border Protection agent and yelled, “F—- you! You f—-ing fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!”
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At the end of his tirade, the documents said, Mr. Dunn was seen “winding his arm back and forcefully throwing a sub-style sandwich” at the agent.
Prosecutors said Mr. Dunn tried to run away but was quickly caught by agents. Court documents said he admitted to throwing the sandwich.
“He thought it was funny,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in her video announcing the charges. “Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today because we charged him with a felony, assault on a police officer, and we’re going to back the police to the hilt. So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else.”
The sandwich-case firing wasn’t the Trump team’s only victory Thursday protecting law-enforcement officials from assaults on Washington’s streets.
Emily Gabriella Sommer pleaded guilty Thursday to attacking and spitting on Ms. Pirro’s predecessor as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital.
The 32-year-old District resident came up to then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. on May 8 during a sidewalk interview with the conservative Newsmax network and, after asking him “are you Ed Martin?” lunged at him and spat on his body.
As she walked away, she yelled vulgarities at Mr. Martin, called him “disgusting” and bragged on camera that “my name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served.”
According to Ms. Pirro’s office, she pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting public officials, the other two counts relating to attacking the police officers who arrested her a few days later, during which she spat on one of the officers and said she hoped she had given him herpes.
Trial had been set to start Monday, but instead U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb accepted the plea and will sentence her Oct. 10.
Federal agents and National Guard troops were deployed across the District after Mr. Trump launched a federal takeover because of rampant lawlessness.
FBI Director Kash Patel said federal law enforcement tallied 45 more arrests Thursday. Authorities took people into custody on charges related to violent offenses, weapon seizures and illegal immigration.
The White House said the first week of the surge netted more than 100 arrests. At least two people were handcuffed after being linked to homicides.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, and the D.C. Council, largely made up of Democrats, have rejected the president’s rationale for the takeover by citing Metropolitan Police Department statistics showing a 30-year low in violent crime. Two years ago, the District suffered a generational crime wave of deadly shootings, runaway carjackings and frequent muggings.
The Trump administration said the District has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation, outpacing other big cities such as New York and Chicago, and its car thefts total three times the national average.
Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration can last only 30 days. He said he will seek congressional approval to extend it, but that would require support from Democrats, which is unlikely.
Rep. Andrew Ogles, Tennessee Republican, introduced a bill to let the president extend the emergency and maintain control of the Metropolitan Police Department “until our capital is taken back and our streets are safe.”
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who serves as the District’s lone, nonvoting member of Congress, shot back at Mr. Ogles for entertaining Mr. Trump’s aims.
“MPD is funded by local DC taxpayers. I will not allow a bill to progress that would force DC to fund a local police force for the president to use indefinitely,” she wrote Thursday on X. “Rep. Ogles’ bill is yet another extreme attack on DC home rule. This will not stand.”
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