CBP agent reminisces about the sandwich that landed on his chest: ‘You could smell the onions and the mustard’
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent struck by a sandwich in Washington, D.C., this summer testified Tuesday during resident Sean Dunn’s federal misdemeanor trial.
CBP agent Gregory Lairmore, who was called as the government’s first witness, told jurors that the sandwich “exploded” on his chest, saying he could feel it strike even through his ballistic vest.
“You could smell the onions and the mustard,” Lairmore said.
Dunn doesn’t dispute that he threw the sandwich at the CBP agent outside a nightclub Aug. 10 as an act of protest to President Trump’s immigration crackdown and law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital. But defense attorney Julia Gatto argued during Tuesday’s opening statements that Dunn’s actions do not amount to a federal crime.
“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” Gatto said. “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.”
“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” Gatto said. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.” [Continue reading…]