Judge Orders Chicago U.S. Attorney To Testify In Botched ICE Protest Case Probe

A federal judge in Chicago has ordered U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and three of his prosecutors to testify under oath Monday about possible misconduct in a botched case against anti-ICE protesters, rejecting the Justice Department's attempt to halt her inquiry.^[1]

In a ruling issued Wednesday, Judge April Perry canceled a separate November 17 hearing on whether she had authority to question prosecutors and instead reaffirmed that power outright, directing Boutros and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Hogan, Matthew Skiba and Andres Almendarez to appear in her courtroom. She also rebuffed a high-level plea from Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who argued that compelling their testimony would place the prosecutors in a "Catch-22," forcing them to choose between potential self-incrimination and contempt of court if they refused to answer.^[1]

Perry's latest order escalates her months-long investigation into how the government handled the so-called Broadview Six case, in which six activists were charged over a protest at a federal immigration detention site in the Chicago suburb of Broadview. The Justice Department dropped those charges in May after defense lawyers alleged misconduct by then-prosecutor Sheri Mecklenburg during grand jury proceedings, and Mecklenburg later resigned, but Perry has kept the spotlight on whether other officials misled the court and the grand jury. She has signaled particular concern about internal emails and other records around the charging decisions, rejecting a DOJ privilege log on Tuesday as "noncompliant" because it concealed the identities of many senders and recipients in key email chains.^[1]

The Justice Department's leadership has treated Perry's inquiry as a threat to prosecutorial independence, warning that forcing line prosecutors and the U.S. attorney to answer detailed questions about internal deliberations could chill future charging decisions nationwide. In court filings summarized by Fox News, Woodward contended that the judge's demands could pierce traditional protections around grand jury secrecy and attorney work product, and he urged her to pause or narrow the probe while DOJ weighed further legal options. Perry's decision to cancel a hearing on her own authority and move straight to sworn testimony, however, indicates she views the alleged deception of the court as serious enough to override those institutional concerns.^[1]

The clash now pits a Biden-appointed district judge against President Biden's own Justice Department in a rare public showdown over how aggressively federal courts can police alleged prosecutorial misconduct after a case is dismissed. Legal analysts say Monday's testimony could reveal whether problems in the Broadview Six prosecution were limited to Mecklenburg's conduct or reflected broader failures inside the Chicago U.S. attorney's office, with potential repercussions for internal discipline, bar complaints or even criminal exposure if officials are found to have knowingly misled a grand jury or the court. However the hearing unfolds, it will test how far a trial judge can go in demanding accountability from federal prosecutors once their charges have collapsed but unanswered questions about their behavior remain.

1. Fox News