Crime & Law
Feds Drop All Charges in ‘Broadview Six’ Case Following Closed-Door Meeting Over Grand Jury Transcripts
Federal prosecutors have abruptly dismissed all charges against the remaining “Broadview Six” defendants, a stunning turn just days before the case was set to go to trial. The move followed a closed-door hearing Thursday morning over redacted grand jury transcripts.
Andrew Boutros, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, appeared in U.S. District Judge April Perry’s courtroom Thursday afternoon to announce his office had dropped all charges in the politically charged case.
Earlier Thursday, Perry pulled the trial, which was set to begin Tuesday, from her docket after she conferred with defense attorneys and federal prosecutors in a sealed courtroom.
The transcripts allegedly revealed that an initial grand jury refused to indict the defendants, and the case was later presented again after prosecutors kicked out certain grand jury members who disagreed with the case, according to defense attorneys.
Bourtros made the stunning dismissal announcement as he denied any knowledge of wrongdoing by his prosecutors before the grand jury, including what he referred to as “vouching” for the strength of the case and ex parte communications between one prosecutor and a member of the grand jury outside the courtroom.
Prosecutors had already dropped all charges against two of the initial six defendants, and later dropped the top conspiracy count against the other four — former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, 45th Ward Democratic Committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, Oak Park Village Board Trustee Brian Straw and Andre Martin — who were set for trial.
Former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh speaks to the news media on May 21, 2026, after federal prosecutors dropped charges against her in the so-called “Broadview Six” case. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)
“We didn’t deserve this,” Abughazaleh said after the hearing, “and no one deserves this and there are going to be more prosecutions like this unless sanctions are actually given.”
The grand jury transcripts have not yet been released, but Perry did agree to unseal the transcript of her Thursday morning hearing where those transcripts were discussed.
During that hearing, Perry said she was “incredibly shocked” by the government’s redactions. She said she’s read “hundreds, if not thousands, of grand jury transcripts” and never seen the “types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”
“I do believe deeply in the presumption of regularity and that most government attorneys are doing the best they can to do the right thing,” she said, according to the transcript. “That trust has been broken.”
Defense attorneys, some of whom are former federal prosecutors, were aghast when they learned about the conduct of Boutros’ prosecutors. Some called for sanctions against the prosecutors. Rabbitt called on Boutros to resign his position. Attorney Josh Herman, who represents Abughazaleh, called the prosecution's actions “bulls--t.”
They said not only was the prosecution's conduct before the grand jury “shameful,” but that they later engaged in a cover-up to try and conceal what exactly went on.
“It is shocking, it is absolutely shocking,” said Nancy DePodesta, who represents Rabbitt. “There are no words to describe the conduct.”
Boutros said he learned Perry was “understandably quite upset” after reviewing the unredacted transcripts and ordering Thursday morning’s hearing, and added that he “sincerely believed” that none of his prosecutors “acted intentionally to mislead you.”
But defense attorney Christopher Parente noted that, while Perry believed she had seen nearly the entirety of the transcript, it was revealed in court Thursday there were missing pages withheld from what was initially given to the judge.
“I don’t understand how that’s not misleading the court,” said Parente, who represents Straw.
The case also marks a black eye for Boutros’ office, which has struggled to secure convictions in criminal cases tied to “Operation Midway Blitz.” Numerous cases have already been dismissed ahead of trial, including that of Marimar Martinez who was arrested after being shot five times by a federal agent.
The one case that has thus far gone before a jury — that of Juan Espinoza Martinez, who was accused of placing a bounty on the head of Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino — resulted in a full acquittal.
Defense attorneys previously questioned whether the charges were politically driven by the Trump administration, though prosecutors said they received no such push to pursue the case from Washington.
Thursday’s ruling comes after defense attorneys questioned why prosecutors suddenly opted to dismiss the case’s top count earlier this month, just as they were ordered to present unredacted transcripts of grand jury proceedings.
Perry said she had already seen “about 99%” of the grand jury transcripts, but Parente maintained that there could be something in the final few redacted lines that could affect the viability of the government’s prosecution.
On Monday, Perry agreed to review the full, unredacted transcript after prosecutors declined to object. She then quickly ordered Thursday’s sealed hearing, demanding any prosecutors who were involved in the decision to redact those transcripts to appear in court.
Parente said that decision to drop the conspiracy count “raises red flags” about the government’s presentation of the law to the grand jury. He previously accused prosecutors of playing a “shell game” to hide how they secured the indictment in this case.
“The decision to abandon the case’s central and most serious allegation at this late stage speaks volumes,” defense attorneys wrote in a motion earlier this month.
The government’s “remarkable about-face,” defense attorneys argued, comes at a time of “mounting national distrust” in the Department of Justice’s use of the grand jury process.
Citing the recent federal indictments filed against former FBI Director James Comey and the Southern Poverty Law Center, defense attorneys argued the timing of the dismissal announcement in this case at a hearing to review unredacted grand jury transcripts “is likely no coincidence.”
The charges in the Broadview case stem from a confrontation just before 8 a.m. Sept. 26 between protesters and federal agents outside ICE’s west suburban processing facility. Prosecutors alleged the group surrounded a government vehicle, “with the intent to hinder and impede” a federal agent from proceeding to the Broadview facility and “discharging the duties of his office.”
In a video posted to her social media accounts that day, Abughazaleh and more than a dozen other protesters can be seen trying to physically prevent an SUV from entering the facility by pushing back on the car while chanting “up, up with liberation and down, down with deportations.”
Though Boutros dropped the charges, he told Perry on Thursday that he stood by the criminal charges and said it was a relief no one was injured when the protesters surrounded the ICE vehicle.
Perry replied that in doing so, Boutros had “significantly undercut your mea culpa” by continuing to vilify these particular defendants. She also suggested prosecutors who handled this case could be in line for sanctions sometime in the future.
