chicago — The top federal prosecutor in Chicago dropped a closely watched case Thursday against four Activists Who has protested outside a federal building over the past year Immigration campaign in the city After the judge examined allegations of grand jury misconduct by the district attorney’s office.
US Attorney Andrew Boutros announced the decision to drop the remaining charges in court after a closed meeting regarding redacted grand jury transcripts. He told U.S. District Judge April Perry that he was not aware until recently of the alleged misconduct, including a prosecutor meeting with a juror outside the proceedings and other jurors who disagreed with the case dismissed and barred from participating. Boutros did not dispute these accusations, saying that the behavior was disturbing and the reason for dismissing the case.
Boutros said: “No one acted with the intention of misleading your honor, and I believe they were following your order to issue the law.”
Boutros, who was appointed by the Trump administration last year, declined to comment further Thursday through a spokesman.
The case, which is scheduled to go to court next week, is among the most high-profile in a crackdown that spread to the country’s third-largest city and suburbs last year. This is also the latest example of how the Department of Justice is struggling to prosecute People accused of assault Or obstructing federal officers during a protest President Donald Trump’s campaign against immigration.
Defense lawyers for activists are among them One-time Democratic candidate for Congress Kat Abu-Ghazaleh said they would request copies of the unredacted transcripts to learn more.
Abu-Ghazaleh’s lawyer, Josh Herman, said: “The revelation of the grand jury misconduct that led to the charges being dropped is unfortunately not surprising.” “This misguided case should never have been brought against Kat Abu-Ghazaleh or any of her co-defendants for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
In October, Abu-Ghazaleh was among six people initially charged with conspiracy to obstruct an officer, a felony. Prosecutors claimed they surrounded the immigration agent’s truck with other protesters A federal facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadviewwhich was central to the aggressive operation of the Trump administration.
Charges against two people were later dropped.
Last month, prosecutors dropped the felony conspiracy charge altogether amid questions about the grand jury transcripts. The new charging documents submitted by the public prosecutor last month did not include other details about the accusations against the activists.
Over the objections of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and other news media, Perry closed part of the hearing to the public due to discussion of the grand jury proceedings, which remained confidential.
The other defendants are Andre Martin, who was part of Abu-Ghazaleh’s campaign staff. Village of Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw; and Michael Rabbitt, a Democratic committee member. They each faced one misdemeanor charge of forcibly obstructing a federal agent.
The charges were dropped with prejudice on Thursday, preventing them from being refiled. Perry also floated the idea of holding a separate hearing on potential sanctions for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for its actions.
This is not the first time during the Trump administration that prosecutors have faced scrutiny over their conduct before grand juries.
In November, for example, a federal judge in Virginia accused the Justice Department of engaging in a “troubling pattern of profound investigative errors” in the process of obtaining an indictment against Former FBI Director James Comey.
One judge wrote that these problems included “fundamental errors of law” by the prosecutor before the grand jury that… Comey was indicted in Septemberand use of potentially privileged communications during an investigation and unjustified irregularities in the transcript of grand jury proceedings.
The case was later dismissed after a judge determined that the prosecutor who made the false claims was illegally appointed. Come In April he was newly indicted more Image for social media Of seashells arranged on the beach that officials said posed a threat against Trump.
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.