Putting Your Footlong in Your Mouth
There was a lot of important news yesterday, including the tragic (yet again) mass shooting at a Minneapolis religious school. Made all the more glaring for MAGOP handwringing calls for "thoughts and prayers" (tm) -- which Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey put in proper perspective by saying, "These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church."
But there was one other story that caught my eye. Not because it was big news -- it wasn't. In fact, it was very minor. But it not only dealt with a news event that had caught the public attention to a large degree, but also was in some ways symbolic of the lunatic and fascist efforts by the Trump administration to overreach and push rational, democratic boundaries.
I suspect most of us here have seen the video of former DOJ employee Sean Dunn (now fired) throwing a Subway footlong sandwich at ICE officers on the street of Washington, D.C.
As much humorous attention as the sandwich-throwing got (not because it's good to throw an object at a law enforcement official, it's not, but the image of a guy in shorts flinging a Subway footlong as an act act of protest and then fleeing ahead of the ICE officers unable to catch him had such a surreal, almost Mack Sennett Keystone Cops sensibility to it), former Fox TV host and Trump-appointee as U.S. Attorney of Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, wanted to make sure the public knew -- knew -- that there was nothing remotely to laugh at about it.
She posted on social media --
But just in case she didn't get her message across, Pirro -- who was known on Fox for her loud, almost slurring-sound rants that came across like she was drunk (whether she was or not, I have no idea) -- wanted to be even more clear and show how swaggering tough she was. This was law and order. And she was going to intimidate the public to watch out, there was a new sheriff in down. Sure, it may have been flinging a Subway turkey footlong, but she was going to put this guy in prison for a felony!
So, she released a posturing video.
We all know the expression that a prosecutor could get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich. Well, it turns out that that bromide does not cover a turkey hoagie.
The Grand Jury in Washington, D.C. yesterday refused to indict Sean Dunn.
It turns out that Jeanine Pirro may have forgotten that she wasn't on Fox TV when she sashayed her posturing arrogance in front of her camera, cosplaying a prosecutor for the attention of Trump, and she ignored that when you're a U.S. Attorney, you're obligated to the rules of law. And have another attorney arguing why you're wrong and foolish. And have a jury of citizens who may be bothered by judicial strong-arming to intimidate everyone. Most especially when over a sandwich.
No word yet if the DOJ gave Mr. Dunn his job back. Or his Subway footlong.
By the way, this is not the first felony effort Ms. Pirro has screwed up on in trying to indict someone. Recently, she attempted to indict a woman for blocking an FBI agent trying to a to do an inmate swap with an ICE official. Pirro's indictment claimed it was an assault.
Three different Grand Juries disagree. The ease of indicting ham sandwiches aside, Jeanine Pirro failed to get an indictment three times. Giving up, she lowered the posturing charge to a misdemeanor.
This is a very bad record for a U.S. Attorney. Though, in fairness, its par for the course for a former Fox TV host.
As for Sean Dunn and his turkey footlong sandwich -- it turns out that Ms. Pirro was wrong about that, too. Because Mr. Dunn now probably thinks it all was pretty funny. Because it was.
Yes, it's just a very small matter. But it good to shine a light on high octane overreach, intimidation that's trying to bully the public into submission, throw a sandwich?, that's a felony, you're going to prison, and that just because a Trump official says they're going to do something, especially something brutal -- that doesn't mean they'll be allowed to. No matter how much they swagger, or how loud.
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