“Appalling Misconduct”: Chicago Federal Prosecutors Under Fire; “Broadview 6” Charges Dropped

Calls are growing for the interim U.S. attorney in Chicago, Andrew Boutros, to resign over his handling of the “Broadview 6” case — six individuals charged with federal crimes for protesting outside Chicago’s Broadview ICE jail in September. The remaining charges against four of the Broadview 6 were recently dismissed after the case collapsed in court due to widespread prosecutorial misconduct. “This DOJ has completely corrupted the grand jury process,” says attorney Chris Parente, who represented one of the Broadview 6. “When they decide that they want to get a political indictment through, they will do whatever it takes, even acting in an unethical way.”

Parente, himself a former federal prosecutor, says federal prosecutors heavily misrepresented the case and forced an indictment despite the grand jury initially voting against it. What’s “even worse,” he adds, is the U.S. attorney’s subsequent cover-up of the prosecutors’ conduct, refusing to release the grand jury transcripts for months and later redacting and withholding full pages from the judge who ordered their release. “As a former federal prosecutor, your job is not to win any case. It’s to do the right thing. And I’ve never seen a case like this, where from the jump they did the wrong thing at every single turn.”