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

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AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now! , democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

“I have read hundreds — if not thousands — of grand jury transcripts … I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.” Those are the words of a federal judge in Illinois, April Perry, who presided over a closely watched case involving six immigrant rights protesters indicted on federal conspiracy charges for protesting outside the Broadview ICE jail in Chicago last year. The defendants became known as the Broadview 6, though most didn’t know each other before.

During a recent court hearing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office admitted federal prosecutors committed misconduct during the grand jury proceedings. And in a stunning move, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges against the four who had been indicted. On Tuesday, Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth called for the resignation of the interim U.S. attorney in Chicago, Andrew Boutros, saying his office was, quote, “riddled with chaos, deep internal dysfunction, and alleged misconduct,” unquote. Also Tuesday, Boutros acknowledged he took the highly unusual step of personally addressing the grand jury before they voted on the indictments in the Broadview case. He did this after a previous grand jury declined to indict any of the activists. Separately, Judge Perry has suggested Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg committed prosecutorial misconduct in the case and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office made an effort to cover it up. The case of the Broadview 6 is raising new questions about how the Department of Justice is using the grand jury system in political prosecutions.

Later in the show, we’ll be joined by two of the Broadview 6 to talk about how these charges and convictions affected their lives. But first we go to Chris Parente, an attorney for Brian Straw, another of the six activists.

Chris, thanks so much for joining us. And especially for a nonlawyer audience around the world, if you can explain exactly who the Broadview 6 are, what happened, how they were charged — no, not on the scene — and take it from there?

CHRISTOPHER PARENTE : Sure, Amy. And thank you for having me on. I appreciate the chance to share this story.

First, the Broadview 6 are exactly six people that we want in our community. They’re people who stood up for those that nobody else at the time was standing up for, people that were being abused by our federal government, and they went out there to peacefully protest the abuses that are now well documented that ICE was doing to our neighbors. And so, they’re people that, you know, I point my children to as these are the people I want you to grow up as, not the DHS agents that are, you know, roving our streets. And for standing up for their neighbors, what did they get? They got targeted by the Trump Department of Justice in yet another political indictment.

And the reason, Amy, that this case is so important, especially now, is because what it shows is how this DOJ has completely corrupted the grand jury process. And that is so important right now, because after all of these political indictments — and the Broadview 6 was one of them, the Comey case is one, Don Lemon case, the Southern Poverty Law case — all of these political indictments, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is out there repeating the same refrain: “Hey, it’s not the DOJ that’s returning these indictments or these arrest warrants. It’s the grand jury. Don’t look at us.” That is such a disingenuous statement, when what these federal prosecutors are doing behind closed doors in secret is completely corrupting the grand jury process.

So, your listeners need to know that in the grand jury, there’s no defense attorney, and there’s no judge. It is a sacred place that is built on the trust of the federal prosecutors who work for the DOJ that go in there. You have to believe that they are going to do the right thing. And what we saw here in this Broadview 6 case is not only did they not do the right thing, they did everything wrong, unethical and against the rules, right? This prosecutor in our case goes in there the first time, presents this case and completely vouches for it, which, again, what vouching is would be if I went to that grand jury and said, “Hey, guys, it’s me, Chris Parente. You know me from other cases. I wouldn’t bring you a bad case. This is a great case.” You can’t do that, right? The federal prosecutor is supposed to objectively present the case, and then the grand jury is supposed to decide: Is there enough here to go forward? So, when you start personally vouching for cases like that, that’s completely inappropriate.

And even with that inappropriate behavior, the grand jury, to their credit, said, “No, this is ridiculous. We are not indicting this case.” That should have been the end of it — but not with this relentless DOJ , w…