Democratic Senate candidate Juliana Stratton is joining calls for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros to resign or be fired over the botched “Broadview Six” case — as former Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday also questioned whether Boutros has enough credibility to continue to lead the office.
Stratton joins Democratic congressional candidate Daniel Biss in calling for Boutros’ resignation — a week after Boutros announced the dismissal of charges against the remaining members of the “Broadview Six” amid claims of prosecutorial misconduct before a grand jury.
The legal damage already has spread to other cases in Chicago and beyond.
The “Broadview Six” case revolved around a September protest outside a suburban immigration facility, where a crowd pushed, scratched and otherwise damaged a federal agent’s SUV. From that crowd, prosecutors charged only six people, all largely involved in local Democratic politics, raising questions about selective prosecution and freedom of expression.
Defendant Michael Rabbitt called for Boutros’ resignation immediately after the case collapsed. Now, high-profile elected officials are joining the call.
It’s another example of the unusual territory the U.S. attorney’s office finds itself in, having largely avoided the partisan fray as the nation’s politics became more divided.
It also comes as news broke Wednesday that the Justice Department referred an investigation to Chicago prosecutors earlier this year into advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault. Boutros clarified Thursday that his office did not start that investigation.
Still, Stratton, Illinois’ lieutenant governor and Senate Democratic nominee, told the Sun-Times on Thursday that Boutros has undermined the credibility of his office and should resign or be fired.
“As the Trump administration repeatedly attempts to use the justice system as a means of political retaliation, it’s more important than ever that professional standards are followed and the public can trust the charges and conduct coming from the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Stratton said in a statement.
Boutros’ office, which announced “sweeping reforms” to its grand jury process Wednesday, did not comment.
Experts have given mixed answers when asked whether a court-appointed U.S. attorney like Boutros can be fired. He has said he serves at the pleasure of the president.
Lightfoot, who worked as a federal prosecutor for six years, called Boutros’ actions “shameful” and a “low point in the history of this otherwise esteemed office.” She criticized the handling of the “Broadview Six” case, the lack of charges against the federal agent who fatally shot Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, and the initial decision to charge Marimar Martinez, who was shot by another agent.
“I think most people have never seen the office in such shambles and leadership with such questions about his credibility,” Lightfoot said.
The former mayor, however, did not go so far as to call for Boutros’ resignation.
“I think U.S. Attorney Boutros needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask himself whether or not he continues to have any credibility that warrants leading this office,” Lightfoot said. “This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
Lightfoot said she does not find it “believable” that Boutros did not know about alleged grand jury misconduct until late April. That’s what Boutros told U.S. District Judge April Perry last week.
“What seems incredible to me is that this high-profile prosecution, that there’s no chance that it wasn’t encouraged by the front office, wasn’t monitored by the front office at every step in the journey, and particularly now knowing the various mistakes that were made in the grand jury,” Lightfoot said. “There’s no possibility that that was not done with full knowledge, direction, and supervision of the front office.”
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, shown in January 2025 discussing financial mismanagement by Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard and others, is a former federal prosecutor. She told the Sun-Times that in the wake of the botched prosecution of the “Broadview Six” protesters, “U.S. Attorney Boutros needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask himself whether or not he continues to have any credibility that warrants leading this office. … This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
Lightfoot said she’s also concerned about the heavy reverberations of the case, including that defense attorneys in the high-profile case against an ex-Loretto Hospital executive and others are now claiming that misconduct allegations against a prosecutor common to both cases were known for months.
“[Boutros] has made a lot of reckless mistakes that are going to haunt his office for a long time to come, and it’s only been a week since all these revelations came into public view,” Lightfoot said.
“As somebody who cares about the Department of Justice, as somebody who’s watching in horror at what’s happened to the Department of Justice, just in a year and a half, and then seeing that reach into this U.S. Attorney’s Office, it’s horrifying. Horrifying.”
Lightfoot became mayor during Trump’s first term in the White House and seemed to maintain a cordial relationship at the time with then-U.S. Attorney John Lausch, who had been nominated by Trump.
A tense visit to Chicago by then-Attorney General Bill Barr during the 2020 presidential campaign found Lightfoot and Lausch voicing public support for local partners amid the otherwise partisan rhetoric, in what appeared to be an effort to hold alliances here together.
Joe Biden won that election and sought to fire Trump’s U.S. attorneys after moving into the White House. Illinois’ Democratic senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, convinced Biden to keep Lausch in place, despite his appointment by Trump, to complete “sensitive investigations.”
That was taken as a reference to the probe of Michael J. Madigan, the former Illinois House speaker who would later be indicted, convicted and sent to prison.