‘It smelled of onions and mustard,’ Border Patrol officer hit by sandwich in DC testifies

FBI and Border Patrol officers arrest a man after he allegedly threw a sandwich, along the U Street corridor during a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation's capital on August 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

“He did it. He threw the sandwich.”

That’s how the defense counsel for Sean Dunn, the man who threw a sub-style sandwich at a Border Patrol officer in Washington, DC, this summer began the federal trial against him Tuesday morning.

The United States government, Dunn’s attorney Julia Gatto told the jury, “turned that moment, a thrown sandwich, into a criminal case. A federal criminal case charging a federal criminal offense.”

The case serves as a certain symbol in the backlash the Trump administration’s deployment of federal troops this summer in