WASHINGTON—The first day of witness testimony concluded on Nov. 4 in the trial of a man who threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent in August.

A grand jury previously declined to indict Sean Dunn, a former employee of the Department of Justice, on felony charges based on allegations that after he berated several law enforcement agents outside a club in Washington’s 14th and U Street area, he hurled his sandwich at one of them.

Dunn now faces a misdemeanor charge with a maximum penalty of one year in jail, fines, and possible probation. The facts of the incident are not in dispute, said Dunn’s attorney, Julia Gatto.

“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” Gatto said in her opening statement.

However, she argued that this wasn’t an assault, but a kind of “punctuation” used by Dunn as he was expressing his displeasure with enhanced law enforcement presence in Washington, following President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the city.

It wasn’t a federal crime, she said.

“It was a harmless gesture at the end of the exercising of his right to speak out,” she told the jurors.

On Aug. 10, CBP Agent Gregory Larimore joined a cohort of around 10 law enforcement officials from his agency, the FBI, and the Metro Transit Police Department in patrolling the city’s streets.

The group had been deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service, Larimore testified.

The patrol was part of a “high-visibility” crime prevention effort, in line with Trump’s executive order federalizing the D.C. police, he said.

At around 11 p.m., Dunn emerged from a Subway sandwich shop and began to question the law enforcement officials, cursing them and calling them fascists and racists. He then focused on Larimore.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city,” Dunn is seen on video as yelling.

After this went on for a while, Detective Daina Henry asked Dunn to leave, according to testimony. He did, but continued shouting at the officers. He eventually returned, threw the sandwich at Larimore, and then fled.

Dunn was arrested shortly after.

The incident was caught on video from multiple angles, including police bodycams and bystander cell phones.

The government argued that Dunn’s sandwich strike was an attempt to interfere with the officers’ work. They produced police bodycam footage in which Dunn, in handcuffs, tells an officer that it was his intent.

“I was trying to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded,” he said.

A few weeks before the trial, Dunn’s attorneys asked the court to dismiss the case as an example of “selective and vindictive” prosecution.

They noted that Dunn had volunteered to turn himself in on Aug. 14 to face a grand jury, but instead authorities raided his home.

The White House published a video of the event on X.

The trial was at times, and perhaps unintentionally, humorous.

At one point, Gatto grilled Latimore about a photograph of the sandwich, asking if he could tell what toppings it contained.

Larimore said he could not. Gatto then wanted to know why he hadn’t photographed it following Dunn’s arrest.

The defense also wanted Judge Carl Nichols to force Larimore to enter into evidence two “gag” gifts his friends purchased following the bread-based assault: a plushie sandwich, and a patch that said “Footlong Felon.”

The gifts showed that neither Larimore, nor his colleagues, thought of the attack as serious, the defense attorneys argued.

The judge said he was not willing to delay the trial to have that evidence brought into court.

The case will reconvene on Nov. 5, when the parties intend to iron out procedural issues with the judge, before both sides rest.