Judge Rejects DOJ Bid to Halt Probe of Prosecutors in Botched ICE Protest Case

A federal judge has rejected a Justice Department bid to halt her investigation into whether prosecutors misled her court in the case against anti-ICE protesters known as the Broadview Six.

Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee, has ordered four federal prosecutors, including Chicago's US attorney, to testify under oath as she considers possible sanctions or criminal contempt proceedings.

Canceling a November 17 hearing on Wednesday, Perry wrote that the government's professed lack of clarity about the court's inherent authority to ask lawyers who made misstatements to, or misled, the court to explain their actions is immaterial.

The Justice Department dropped the criminal case against the six protesters in May amid allegations of misconduct involving former federal prosecutor Sheri Mecklenburg, who later resigned. Perry's investigation into the prosecutors' conduct has continued.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the Justice Department's third-ranking official, argued in a filing that requiring prosecutors to testify would put them in a Catch-22: they could testify and risk prosecution, or assert their Fifth Amendment rights and risk antagonizing the court.

Perry rejected the government's argument, writing that the government does not represent at least three-quarters of the individuals asked to testify, two of whom have expressed willingness to do so. There is no indication on the docket that the government represents the fourth individual either, she wrote.

Perry has ordered US Attorney Andrew Boutros and three assistant US attorneys in the Northern District of Illinois, William Hogan, Matthew Skiba and Andres Almendarez, to testify under oath on Monday.

The testimony is expected to address prosecutors' knowledge of possible grand jury misconduct, the accuracy of their statements to the court, why grand jury transcripts were redacted and whether officials outside the US Attorney's Office received information about the investigation.

The inquiry stems from a grand jury's refusal to return an indictment on October 9, 2025, and a subsequent session convened by Boutros in which two jurors were excused over impartiality concerns. Those jurors later returned for a third session on October 23, when the grand jury indicted the protesters on a felony conspiracy charge.

According to court records, grand jury transcripts initially provided to Perry in April contained redactions that concealed evidence of possible misconduct, including allegations of improper vouching for the government's case by former Assistant US Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg during an October 9, 2025 grand jury presentation.

The six protesters included former Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh. They faced federal charges stemming from a September 26, 2025 confrontation outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Prosecutors alleged the demonstrators surrounded a federal immigration agent's vehicle to prevent him entering the facility, and that crowd members struck the vehicle, damaging a side mirror and windshield wiper, although prosecutors did not identify any of the six defendants as personally responsible.

The other defendants were Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, Chicago Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt, Abughazaleh campaign staffer Andre Martin, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine Sharp and musician Joselyn Walsh.