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was still roiling Chicago the afternoon of Oct. 23, 2025, when a federal grand jury met for a third time to consider whether to indict six people in a conspiracy to impede an immigration agent outside the ICE facility in Broadview.It had been contentious from the beginning, with some grand jury members pushing back in earlier sessions on the idea of felony charges for a protest where no one was hurt, according to transcripts of the proceedings. Earlier that month, the panel had issued a rare “no bill” refusing to indict. At a second session, one grand juror called the case “a crock of s—” and was excused from the discussions, the transcripts show. Others followed, and top officials in the U.S. attorney’s office eventually had to call off the vote.
Back for a third time, the grand jurors still seemed to be struggling, despite a surprise appearance from U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, who reminded them of their duty to put aside personal feelings and follow the law. How could these protesters be part of a conspiracy when they didn’t seem to be acting together? How could it be a felony if some of them didn’t even appear to touch the agent’s car?
“I know. It’s a — it’s a hard one. I agree,” then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg told them shortly before they began deliberating that day, according to the transcript. “I have been doing this for a long time, and even when I look at it, I have to think about it a lot. So I appreciate your questions. I think they’re insightful.”
By the end of that day — one year ago Friday — prosecutors finally got what they came for. The indictment against six local activists, most with ties to Democratic politics, would come to be known as the “Broadview Six,” a case held up at the time by Todd Blanche, the then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General, as a righteous defense of “the rule of law.”
But fast forward a year, and the Broadview Six case has become as much about the conduct of those responsible for enforcing that rule.
Even though all charges were dismissed in May amid allegations of grand jury misconduct by Mecklenburg, the case continues to reverberate at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where U.S. District Judge April Perry is mulling whether others in the office obstructed justice in the case, which could lead to sanctions or even appointment of special counsel and criminal contempt charges.
Perry has imposed an Oct. 30 deadline for prosecutors to turn over any internal communications showing whether U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington D.C. had a hand in the case — something Boutros’ office has emphatically denied.
A tough road
For the former defendants, the past 12 months have been a roller-coaster, from facing years in prison and vilification by the Trump administration to seeing all charges dropped and being celebrated by many as the vanguard of resistance to the president’s immigration policies.
Last month, on the anniversary of the Sept. 26 protest that led to their arrest, four of the six gathered outside the Broadview site for the first time since being indicted.
Among them was Michael Rabbitt, the 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman, who told the Tribune it was important to recognize the government’s efforts to silence critics have failed. He also said it was just one of a whole series of anniversaries that have him looking back and reflecting.
“We just had the one-year anniversary of the protest,” Rabbitt said. “Then the anniversary of ‘no bill’ day on Oct. 9. (Last week) we had the one year anniversary of “crock of s—” day. Now here comes the anniversary of ‘Boutros shows up and then there’s an indictment’ day…It’s been quite the year.”
Rabbitt’s former co-defendant, Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, joined the group for the reunion in Broadview. He told the Tribune he sometimes ponders whether he’d do anything differently knowing what he’d go through, and “overall the answer is no.” The spotlight the case has shined on the Justice Department’s activities has all been worth it.
Still, Straw agreed it’s been a long year. “It’s hard to believe it hasn’t been 10,” he said.
The indictment
Though the Broadview Six indictment was returned Oct. 23, 2025, it remained under seal for almost a week before the U.S. attorney’s office announced it in a press release Oct. 29. By that time, the FBI had notified each of the defendants they’d been charged and should make arrangements to turn themselves in.
At the time, Rabbitt was on a two-week trip to Spain and Portugal with his wife to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Looking back through his photos and itinerary, he thinks they were on a train back to Seville from visiting the Moorish palace Alhambra at the time the indictment was being filed. They’d moved on to Lisbon by the morning of Oct 28, when he awoke to messages on his phone from an FBI agent telling him he’d been charged.
Rabbitt thought it was a joke at first — he’d had no idea he was even under investigation. But the reality soon sunk in.
He called his brother, who is an attorney, and was referred to a criminal defense attorney, Nancy DePodesta, who made arrangements for him to come back to Chicago on his planned return date and be processed. Still, he was worried. A friend of his who works for an Illinois congresswoman had warned him, “this is the Trump administration. They don’t follow the law.”
“It made for a stressful trip home,” Rabbitt said.
Straw, meanwhile, also had no inkling the protest he’d participated in was being targeted by the feds. When he got a call from the FBI, he was at work and thought it was a “scam call of some sort.”
“I could not believe the words I was hearing,” Straw said. “It certainly led to one of the strangest weeks in my life”
He said he had to quickly scramble to get an attorney and sit his family down, including two school-age children, and let them know what was coming. Within 36 hours, their dad was a national news story.
The indictment was the most serious case brought against protesters since Midway Blitz began in September 2025, and reaction came from all sides of the political spectrum. Adding fuel to the fire was that most of the defendants had ties to Democratic politics — including Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, who was running for Congress — and that the protest that day had caught the attention of national conservative pundits and social media influencers, some of whom had been clamoring for charges.
Case is trumpeted
The news release blasted out by the U.S. attorney’s office Oct. 29 described how the defendants allegedly crowded around the ICE agent’s vehicle, stood in its path, banged on the car and windows, and pushed against it to hinder and impede its movement. “The conspirators broke one of the vehicle’s side mirrors and the rear windshield wiper and etched a derogatory message into the of the vehicle,” the release said.
The release included a statement from Boutros, who noted he’d warned before that protesters who “cross the line” will face consequences. But perhaps more telling, it also quoted Blanche, who said when people resort to force or intimidation to impede law enforcement, “they attack not only the agents themselves but the rule of law they represent.”
Attorneys for the Broadview Six wasted no time blasting the decision to indict their clients as politically motivated amid pressure from the Trump administration to make an example of them. As the case wound toward a trial, the defense asked Perry to order prosecutors to turn over any records of communications with Justice Department or White House officials about the case, pointing to the interest shown by Blanch as well as key deputies under him.
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Boutros, who was first appointed in March 2025 by then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, has publicly denied bringing any cases for political reasons. And the discovery request by the defense was met with disdain by the prosecutors on the case, who called it “reckless” and “the product of fevered paranoia and delusional speculation.”
In a filing explaining their position after the case was dismissed, however, prosecutors revealed for the first time there had been a broad discussion about the Broadview incident in a video meeting between prosecutors and DOJ officials on the day after it happened, including the playing of one of the available videos from the scene. After the indictment, there were discussions “between the Office and Main Justice” to provide updates about the case, but they were described as routine and not subject to discovery, the U.S. attorney’s office has said.
But attorneys for the Broadview Six have also pointed to other evidence that the DOJ was paying attention well before the indictment. On the day of the protest, a top supporter of Blanche deputy Aakash Singh posted on social media: “Dear Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros… where are the arrests of Kat Abughazaleh and others?” according to a defense filing in September.The judge’s inquiry
Perry has made no finding at this point that there was intentional misconduct in the Broadview case. But at the most recent hearing Oct. 1, she said it was clear that “several aspects of this prosecution were very flawed” and that certain representations made to her by Boutros’ office were not accurate. She also said whether a cover-up occurred to hide illegal conduct — or maybe simply something that was “embarrassing” — does not matter.
The judge also said her inquiry would not be focused on any misconduct before the grand jury, which is no longer on the table because the charges have been dismissed. “My sole focus at this point is on the lack of candor, concealment of material facts or other misconduct that occurred before me,” Perry said.
One year on, the fallout from the failed prosecution continues in other ways as well. After being suspended by her office, Mecklenburg has fought back, retiring in protest earlier this month and claiming in court documents and in a resignation letter Boutros had pressured her to pursue felony charges and personally asked her for the expedited grand jury transcript after the first session went haywire.
Perry granted Mecklenburg’s request to intervene in the ongoing proceedings, saying the law licenses of those involved are on the line and that Mecklenburg’s interests do not line up with those of her former office.
Over the past six months, a number of other defendants in cases unrelated to Broadview have seen charges against them dropped or been granted deals with the government because of the controversy, including in a high-profile COVID-19 fraud prosecution related to Loretto Hospital.
The U.S. attorney’s office has acknowledged mistakes were made and said reforms have been implemented in the grand jury process to ensure they don’t happen again. Still, the case continues to dog Boutros’ tenure as U.S. attorney, with Perry and at least two other judges remarking that the trust normally placed in the office had been broken.
In June, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman called out Boutros specifically for what she said is a “Pandora’s box” that has been opened by his office, saying that just because they were dismissing counts against two defendants in the COVID fraud case before her, the problem isn’t likely to just go away.
“I don’t know if by doing this you get to put everything back in the box,” Coleman said.
For the former defendants, the repercussions have been personal. A couple weeks after the indictment was announced, Straw received a threatening phone call at his house, and his family had to leave the home while police investigated. He said his kids have had nightmares and difficulty sleeping until they know he’s home safe, particularly when he’s attending late Oak Park committee meetings.
“It’s going to take time for them, for all of us, to heal from the last year,” Straw said. “It’s certainly been a traumatic year. But I do think the fact that I consulted with my kids throughout the process, about the right thing to do at every step along the case, means we’ve been in this together and they feel invested in the outcome.”
Though his children are older, Rabbitt’s family was confronted by issues stemming from their own family history. In the 1970s, when he was a teenager, Rabbitt’s father, Richard, a Missouri state representative and the then-Speaker of the House, was indicted on federal corruption charges. He wound up being convicted and served about 18 months in prison, and went on to win his law license back and have a successful second act as a private lawyer.
Rabbitt said his own indictment by the Department of Justice some 50 years later was particularly hard on his five siblings and his mother, who is now 91. “It was a traumatizing thing,” he said.
‘About the First Amendment’
Both Straw and Rabbitt say that despite what they had to go through individually, the Broadview case always has been bigger than just themselves. And while the case has taken its toll on them, both personally and financially, what they are seeing Perry do to get to the bottom of what happened is encouraging.
“This is about the rights of protesters all over the country, it’s about the First Amendment,” Rabbitt said. “I think that while the goal was to stifle resistance to Operation Midway Blitz and in the immigration enforcement that continues, the crackdowns have backfired. I think it brought a lot more people into this movement.”
How it all ends up remains to be seen. But a year after being indicted, Rabbitt and Straw said they’re hopeful for closure soon.
Meanwhile, the anniversaries will keep coming. In fact, Rabbitt said he and his wife are already planning a return trip to Spain for a family wedding next year. The date of the wedding is Oct. 16, 2027.
“I told my wife, ‘Oh Oct. 16th, that’s crock of s— day.'” Rabbitt said, laughing. “She just looked at me like, come on!”