A Washington, D.C., grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict former Justice Department employee Sean Charles Dunn on a felony assault charge for throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer during an Aug. 10 confrontation on the city’s U Street corridor. Prosecutors had sought to treat the sandwich toss as a federal assault on law-enforcement officers, a crime that can carry an eight-year prison term. Court records say Dunn approached a group of CBP agents, shouted “I don’t want you in my city, fascist,” and hurled a wrapped 10-inch sub that struck one officer in the chest. Video of the incident went viral, and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Dunn, then an international-affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, the day after his arrest. Grand-jury refusals are rare, underscoring what legal analysts view as growing resistance among District residents to President Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops in the capital. The failure marked the second time in days that jurors rejected felony charges sought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office under the crackdown directive. After the grand jury’s decision, prosecutors on Thursday filed a single misdemeanor count of simple assault against Dunn through a criminal information, a procedure that does not require grand-jury approval and carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail. Officials have not said whether they will again seek a felony indictment before a different panel. The case has become a symbolic test of the Justice Department’s push to secure the harshest possible penalties for offenses arising from the federal surge. Legal observers note that the grand jury’s rebuff—reminiscent of the old adage that prosecutors can “indict a ham sandwich”—highlights the limits of that strategy when jurors perceive overcharging.