CHICAGO – The repercussions of a dismissed federal case involving six protestors against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions persist, drawing significant attention and controversy.
Last week, the ABC7 I-Team revealed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had dropped all charges against the group known as the “Broadview Six.” The individuals, including several progressive politicians, had been accused of interfering with immigration enforcement during a protest outside the Broadview ICE processing center, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” last fall.
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The decision to dismiss the charges arose after it was discovered that prosecutors had redacted and omitted sections of grand jury transcripts. Additionally, there were undisclosed interactions with grand jurors, which defense attorneys argue amounted to a deliberate “coverup” of prosecutorial misconduct.
U.S. District Judge April Perry expressed concerns last week, suggesting the actions of the prosecutors could result in sanctions for misconduct and ethical breaches. She remarked, “I have never encountered the kind of prosecutorial conduct before a grand jury that I observed in these transcripts.”
During a hearing on Tuesday, defense attorney Christopher Parente urged Judge Perry to investigate, stating, “We believe the U.S. Attorney had personal contact with this grand jury,” and requested that any interactions U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros may have had with the grand jurors be disclosed.
Former federal prosecutor and ABC7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer clarified, “There’s nothing inherently wrong with a U.S. Attorney engaging with a grand jury, whether by presenting evidence, questioning witnesses, or welcoming jurors. However, as the U.S. Attorney has admitted, it is improper to endorse the case.”
“Vouching” is when a prosecutor inappropriately guarantees information before a grand jury, or vouches for the office’s credibility, in order to secure an indictment, according to legal experts.
In the Broadview Six case, Judge Perry said after reviewing the grand jury transcripts, she identified instances of improper prosecutorial vouching, communications with grand jurors outside of the grand jury room and excusing grand jurors who disagreed with the government’s case from the deliberations process.
“Most problematic,” Perry said in court last week, “all of this was redacted out of the versions of the transcripts I got.”
Soffer telling the I-Team nothing about this case is ordinary, and any future disclosures of what was said before the grand jury, including the possibility of audio recordings of the testimony, would be out of the norm.
“It’s already unusual,” Soffer said. “Unusually, we’re going to see the disclosure of what happened inside the grand jury room, precisely so that we can know the answers to these questions.”
In response to questions about whether the U.S. Attorney appeared before the “Broadview Six” grand jury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office told the I-Team, in part, “Any appearance he has made in the grand juries has been in his capacity as the Chief Legal Advisor to the federal grand juries of this district, including to welcome them when they were impaneled or to advise generally on the role, function, and importance of the grand jury in our constitutional system of laws.”
The office did not respond to questions over whether U.S. Attorney Boutros appeared before the Broadview Six grand jury in his capacity as the Chief Legal Advisor.
After the case was dropped last week, in an email to all U.S. Attorney’s Office staff for the Northern District of Illinois obtained by the I-Team, Boutros was adamant nothing nefarious occurred.
“This case was beset by a number of challenges,” Boutros wrote. “These prosecutors fought for the rule of law and fought for the safety and security of our federal officials and employees- and we thank them for that.”
Attorneys for the Broadview Six plan to file additional motions on Wednesday in an effort to make the grand jury transcripts in question public.
In court on Tuesday, prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told Judge Perry it is bound by federal law to retain all communications about the grand jury in this case.
Defense attorneys will likely argue for possible sanctions against prosecutors next month.
Soffer said the public’s trust in the integrity of the grand jury process, and what prosecutors say behind closed doors to secure criminal indictments, is crucial.
“There are a few things more consequential in our system of laws than the grand jury criminal process, it’s the process by which people are indicted, and it happens in secret,” Soffer said. “The allegations that have been made call into question the integrity of the criminal process, and that affects every American.”
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