U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros released a startling report Tuesday acknowledging he appeared before the grand jury in the “Broadview Six” case on the day the indictment was handed up in October, asking for those on the panel who could not keep an open mind on immigration evidence to “please raise your hand.”
Boutros’ rare Oct. 23 appearance at the grand jury came at the height of Operation Midway Blitz and was an attempt to quell discord after a prosecutor had dismissed at least two panel members who had personal issues with the case and refused to deliberate. A previous panel, in fact, had declined to indict at all — issuing a rare “no bill” instead.
It’s unusual for a sitting U.S. attorney to personally appear before any grand jury, but for Boutros to have done so in such a controversial case is sure to fuel allegations of undue pressure to return an indictment.
“Of all days for the U.S. Attorney to make a rare appearance before the grand jury, that he would be present on the day he likely knew this case would be re-presented speaks for itself,” attorney Christopher Parente, who represents one of the former Broadview defendants, said in a written statement Tuesday.
In his five-page report, however, Boutros defended his appearance before the grand jury, saying its importance “cannot be overstated” given the animosity and bias that had shown itself in previous grand jury sessions.
“In such uncharted and unprecedented circumstances, extraordinary measures may be required to restore the rule of law,” the report stated in a “conclusion” paragraph.
The report was issued in response to defense attorneys’ questions last week about Boutros having unspecified contact with the grand jury panel, which was indicated in a preliminary transcript of the proceedings.
Boutros said he was releasing the unprecedented report “in the public interest as well as the interest of justice in light of speculation” caused by the in-court comments by the defense.
The release of Boutros’ comments comes amid a rapidly intensifying scandal
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that is virtually unprecedented for Chicago’s vaunted U.S. attorney’s office, long regarded as one of the country’s most professional prosecutorial offices.Less than two weeks ago, the politically charged Broadview case collapsed in dramatic fashion, with U.S. District Judge April Perry describing “shocking” misconduct before the grand jury and Boutros himself appearing before Perry to apologize and dismiss the charges on the eve of trial.
Boutros has been under intense scrutiny since the case unraveled, with U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin on Tuesday joining calls for his resignation.
Meanwhile, attorneys representing the former defendants filed a motion Tuesday afternoon asking a judge to award payment of the attorney fees they incurred to fight the case, alleging “wide-ranging misconduct” and an ensuing cover-up.
The motion, though, asks the judge to hold the request over while they continue to investigate and review evidence to learn the full scope of what happened during the grand jury proceedings.
“The government’s misconduct before the grand jury, which compelled the U.S. Attorney to dismiss the remaining charges in the superseding information on May 21, 2026, shocks the conscience,” the motion said. “The efforts to cover up that misconduct are arguably worse.”
In his report, Boutros said he notified U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall that he planned to appear before the Broadview Six grand jury as well as two others sitting that day after reports of “prior grand jury disturbances and potential tension” a week earlier.
Boutros said he’d also learned that Kendall, who oversees the grand jury proceedings in the district, had issued a letter that was read into the record in several grand jury sessions reminding them of the role they play in the judicial system.
“We can confirm that the Chief Judge Kendall issued a correspondence in her capacity as Chief Judge regarding matters related to the rule of law and the administration of justice,” said Sean Lewis, spokesman for the U.S. District Court. “Because grand jury communications are confidential, we are unable to provide a copy of this document.”
By the time Boutros made his appearance, the nascent Broadview Six case already had a tumultuous history. After the first grand jury session on Oct. 9 ended with a no bill, a second panel was convened a week later, according to court records, but the presentation of evidence soon bogged down.
In that Oct. 16 session, arguments from several grand jurors led the prosecutor, Sheri Mecklenburg, to exclude them from deliberations, according to court records. She also had “ex parte” communications with a grand juror outside the proceedings, which Mecklenburg reported to her superiors at the U.S. attorney’s office, records show. Testimony then ended abruptly before any indictment was presented.
On Oct. 23, Boutros went before the same grand jury, introduced himself as the U.S. attorney, and told the panel they had an important “constitutional” function to play in the judicial system, according to a transcript provided in Boutros’ report.
He also said “setting aside your emotions, setting aside your personal views, beliefs and biases” was very important, according to the transcript.
“And just simply as I like to say, calling balls and strikes,” Boutros said. “You’re the umpire and you can’t come in and be an umpire in favor of (a) particular team. You gotta call balls and strikes and that’s all we ask. But we also recognize that these are trying times, these are emotional times. You can’t help but turn on the news, read the newspapers, or for those of you who use TikTok and Instagram, and there’s stuff in there all the time.”
Boutros then said that if anyone was “struggling with a certain type of cases, such as the immigration cases” where they did not believe they could be objective, “I would ask that you raise your hand and identify yourself, because we have a different procedure for that.”
“Fairness is the key to the operation of our system,” Boutros continued, according to the transcript. “So is there anyone here who thinks that he or she cannot be fair, cannot be open-minded, cannot receive evidence, cannot set aside their personal feelings on any case, immigration or otherwise, child exploitation, immigration, whatever it is. Anyone who thinks they can’t do it, please raise your hand.”
According to the transcript, no one raised their hand, and after a few more general remarks, Boutros left the room.
The grand jury issued an indictment charging the Broadview Six with felony conspiracy counts later that day, records show.
In his report, Boutros said “the bottom line” was clear that he was only involved with the grand jury in his capacity as its chief legal advisor, not related to any presentation of “facts, evidence, or law.”
Parente said in his statement that Boutros was only disclosing his unusual grand jury contact six months after it occurred “because of the demands of the Broadview 6 defense team for transparency on this U.S. Attorney’s engagement in the grand jury process.”
Attorney Terence Campbell, who represents former Broadview Six defendant Andre Martin, said the statements by Boutros’ office Tuesday “raise more questions than they answer about the process and prosecutorial conduct involved in convincing the grand jury.”
Campbell said the “entire seqence” where Boutros asked grand jurors who felt they couldn’t be fair to raise their hands was “to say the least, highly unusual.”
The Broadview Six indictment alleged the group of protesters, most with ties to local Democratic politics, conspired to damage and impede an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s vehicle at a suburban ICE processing facility on Sept. 26.
The case was beset by controversy from the moment the indictment was brought, as the defense alleged the charges were brought amid pressure from the Trump administration and were nothing more than an attempt to silence protests of the president’s harsh immigration policies.
The Broadview Six case had been set for trial on May 26. However, after the grand jury issues came to light, Boutros personally appeared in court to apologize and officially drop all charges.
Boutros told Perry that he’d been unaware of any issues with the grand jury presentation until late April and immediately moved to dismiss the conspiracy indictment, proceeding instead on misdemeanor counts that require no grand jury approval.
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But Perry was clearly irked that prosecutors in Boutros’ office had redacted copies of the grand jury proceedings that had been turned over to her. She only read the full, unredacted versions after defense attorneys insisted.
“Your sole goal is to do justice,” Perry told prosecutors. “Your client is justice itself. 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. That trust has been broken.”
Perry has said further discovery could be ordered on the issue of vindictive prosecution, including any emails or other internal communications, about the origin of the case and any pressure that came from sources outside the U.S. attorney’s office to prosecute it.
The motion by the defense attorneys on Tuesday accused the U.S. attorney’s office of only acting to dismiss charges after the misconduct was outed, even though “the fact of the prosecutors’ misconduct had been well-known to all the AUSAs involved in the case, and to the U.S. Attorney himself for months.”
“Dismissal when faced with these sordid facts, however, cannot absolve the government from its misconduct, nor immunize it from providing further information about it,” the motion said.
The motion argued that the case meets the legal requirements to cover attorney fees, including being victims of “vexatious, bad faith, and frivolous litigation” and having a net worth of less than two million dollars at the time of the indictment.
Tribune reporter Madeline Buckley contributed.