The decision to drop the case came Thursday in Chicago federal court, as U.S. District Judge April Perry moved to address allegations that federal prosecutors mishandled secret grand jury proceedings tied to last year’s immigration enforcement. Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, Andrew Boutros, announced that he would dismiss the remaining charges against the activists after reviewing the dispute surrounding redacted grand jury materials, according to the Associated Press.
Boutros made the dismissal after a closed-door meeting in which Judge Perry scrutinized claims of grand jury misconduct by the prosecutor’s office, AP reported. He told the judge he was unaware until recently of the alleged misconduct and said he did not dispute the allegations, describing the conduct as upsetting and saying it was the reason the case was being dismissed.
AP said Boutros told Perry that the alleged misconduct included a prosecutor meeting with a grand juror outside the grand jury’s proceedings, along with claims that other jurors who disagreed with dismissing the case were prevented from taking part. Boutros also told the judge that “No one acted with the intent to mislead your honor, and I think that they were following your order to give the law,” according to the report. Afterward, Boutros declined further comment through a spokesman.
The case had been slated for trial next week and had become one of the most closely watched cases from the crackdown ripple across Chicago and its suburbs, AP said. Prosecutors had pursued charges tied to a protest outside a federal building during the immigration crackdown, and the activists’ case raised questions about how federal authorities handled prosecutions involving protesters.
Defense attorneys for the activists, including former Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, said they would seek copies of unredacted grand jury transcripts as part of their next steps. Josh Herman, Abughazaleh’s defense attorney, said in a statement that the dismissal followed “revelations of the grand jury misconduct” and described the case as something that “should have never been brought” for conduct he tied to protected First Amendment rights, according to AP.
AP reported that the activists were originally charged in October with conspiring to impede an officer, a felony, including Abughazaleh and others. Prosecutors alleged the group surrounded an immigration agent’s van with other protesters at a federal facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, and the case later narrowed as some charges were dropped for two defendants and the felony conspiracy count was dropped last month amid questions about the grand jury transcripts.
When Judge Perry handled portions of the hearing, she closed part of it to the public, AP said, after news outlets including the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times objected. Perry did so because the discussion concerned grand jury proceedings, which are kept secret, and AP reported that Perry also floated a possible separate hearing on sanctions for the U.S. Attorney’s Office over the actions at issue.
The activists whose charges were dismissed Thursday included Andre Martin, described as on Abughazaleh’s campaign staff; Brian Straw, a village trustee in Oak Park; and Michael Rabbitt, identified as a Democratic committeeperson. Each had faced a single misdemeanor count of forcibly impeding a federal agent, according to AP, and the dismissals on Thursday were with prejudice, preventing the charges from being refiled.
AP also cited prior scrutiny of federal prosecutors’ conduct before grand juries during the Trump administration, including a Virginia federal judge’s accusations in the case involving former FBI Director James Comey. In that separate matter, AP reported that a magistrate judge wrote of “fundamental misstatements of the law” and other irregularities in the transcript, with the prosecution later dismissed after a court determined the prosecutor who filed it was illegally appointed.