Before voting to give April Perry a lifetime job as a federal judge in 2024, a senator asked the longtime prosecutor to reflect on one of her most significant cases — and what it taught her.
Perry chose the case against Jon Burge, the late Chicago police commander tied to torture claims who was ultimately convicted of perjury. Perry helped put Burge in prison in 2011, and she said she learned about the damage one corrupt law enforcement officer could do.
But she said she also found the reverse to be true.
“When the government appropriately polices its own misconduct, punishing those who do not display the integrity that is demanded of them, it enhances community trust and respect for the police, and our community is safer,” Perry wrote to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
It could be a pivotal lesson as Perry, now in her second year as a judge, decides what to do about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the tainted case against the group of Operation Midway Blitz protesters known as the “Broadview Six.”
There are tremendous differences between the Burge and “Broadview Six” scandals. But trust in law enforcement lies at the heart of each of them. And the revelations in the “Broadview Six” case created an instant credibility crisis for Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office.
A veteran prosecutor from Boutros’ office is accused of mishandling the case before a grand jury. Defense attorneys say a cover-up ensued to hide what happened from the judge. Now, Perry is weighing whether to hand down sanctions or name a special counsel to investigate Boutros and others for contempt.
Boutros argued earlier this month that he’s worked to prevent such misconduct from happening again, and he insisted a judge’s contempt power should only “be exercised with appropriate discretion.”
Perry’s ruling could come as soon as September.
It’ll be another high-stakes moment for a 47-year-old judge who once blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois and who was tapped in 2023 to be Chicago’s top federal prosecutor — only to be denied the job by future Vice President JD Vance.
How Perry will rule now is anyone’s guess. Before the “Broadview Six” case collapsed, she sided against defense attorneys on multiple occasions. She even scolded one defendant’s lawyers for pushing the very issue that led to the misconduct revelations.
But she had unmistakably harsh words for the feds May 21, the day the case fell apart. She said the trust she’d placed in prosecutors had “been broken,” and she reminded them their “sole goal is to do justice.”
“Your client is justice itself,” she told them.
But that was three months ago. Tempers have had time to cool.
Sean Lewis, a spokesman for Chicago’s U.S. District Court, said, “the Code of Conduct for United States judges requires judges to perform their duties fairly, impartially and diligently and provides that they should not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism.”
“Because the Broadview matter remains pending, Judge Perry will not be commenting or participating in an interview about the case,” Lewis said.
Mark Rotert, a retired prosecutor and former colleague of Perry’s, said the judge believes “to whom much is given, much is demanded.”
Perry has a “core of steel,” he said. And “she will be really unhappy if she believes that a prosecutor working for the United States intentionally — or even grossly negligently — did something to deceive or to pursue a case that was not what it should have been,” he added.
This all comes as federal judges across the country grapple with a Justice Department accused of abandoning its principles. In Chicago, Perry and her colleagues found themselves pushing back last fall against the Trump administration’s aggressive Midway Blitz deportation campaign.
More recently, they’ve questioned their ability to trust the feds in the midst of the “Broadview Six” scandal. A magistrate judge ordered Boutros into her courtroom last month, concluding that he’d violated a secrecy order in a separate case.
Still, that judge ordered no sanction.
Retired 7th Circuit appeals court Judge Diane Wood said judges like Perry are “stepping up to the moment.” Still, she said they face a real dilemma — they “don’t have their own personal standing army.”
“All they have, really, is their reputation,” Wood explained.
“If they go too far,” she asked, “then what do they do when people refuse to comply?”
Perry’s road to the ‘Broadview Six’ case
Eleven months after Perry first took the bench, attorneys for the state of Illinois stepped into her courtroom Oct. 6 and asked her to immediately block Trump’s effort to deploy the National Guard here. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had compared Chicago to a “war zone” and claimed acts of violence were occurring “on a regular basis.”
Perry didn’t block the deployment immediately. But three days later, she concluded the Trump administration’s “perception of events” around Chicago was “simply unreliable.”
Her order stopped the president’s deployment of troops and withstood challenges all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That controversy thrust Perry into the national spotlight. But she was no stranger to tough cases.
As a federal prosecutor in Chicago from 2004 until 2016, Perry helped take Burge to trial and helped investigate Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke for the 2014 killing of teenager Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke was later convicted of second-degree murder in state court.
Perry went on to serve as chief deputy state’s attorney and chief ethics officer for then-Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx from 2017 until 2019. She resigned in April 2019 and has said her advice was not followed during the prosecution of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of a hate-crime hoax.
In 2023, then-President Joe Biden nominated Perry to be Chicago’s top federal prosecutor. Normally such a nomination would sail through the U.S. Senate. But then-Sen. Vance blocked Perry’s confirmation to protest prosecutions that had begun against Trump.
Biden wound up making Perry a judge instead, and she took the bench in November 2024. While seeking confirmation, she was asked whether judges should reach conclusions based on their values.
“A judge’s personal values should play no role in questions of constitutional interpretation,” she replied in a written questionnaire.
She’s taken a light-hearted approach in the courtroom since taking the bench. Even when the stakes are high.
During a hearing on the National Guard controversy, she quipped that a claim about vandalism to vehicles sounded “like a Carrie Underwood song.”
And when a trusted veteran prosecutor took over the “Broadview Six” case after allegations of wrongdoing went public, Perry greeted the prosecutor with a “Hunger Games” reference.
“Thank you for volunteering as tribute,” Perry said.
Hidden missteps and shattered trust
The “Broadview Six” case revolved around a protest outside an immigration holding facility in west suburban Broadview in September 2025 — at the height of Midway Blitz. Prosecutors alleged a crowd pushed and damaged a federal agent’s SUV.
But out of that crowd, only six people were charged. Most of them were involved in local Democratic politics.
Charged were then-congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village Trustee Brian Straw, then-Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and Abughazaleh campaign worker Andre Martin.
The case collapsed because of what Perry found in transcripts from grand jury proceedings. Prosecutors originally showed redacted versions of the transcripts to the judge. But suspicious defense attorneys spent weeks urging Perry to read unredacted copies.
She finally agreed to do so May 18, speculating the redactions were probably “IT issues.” Two days later, she demanded that anyone from Boutros’ office involved in the redactions appear in her courtroom May 21.
Perry said the unredacted transcripts revealed three types of wrongdoing before the grand jury. The proceedings were led by longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg.
The first category of wrongdoing is known as “vouching.” It’s considered improper, and it occurs when prosecutors put their personal credibility on the line to support criminal charges.
Second, grand jurors who disagreed with the feds’ case were excused from the deliberations, Perry said. The transcripts, which have now been made public, show Mecklenburg excused a grand juror who called the case a “crock of s—.”
Federal rules of criminal procedure only empower “the court” to excuse a grand juror. In Chicago, that would be U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall.
Finally, Mecklenburg acknowledged she’d had conversations with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, records show.
Perry also mentioned a fourth concern: The alleged misconduct had been redacted out of the transcripts initially given to her by the feds. She called that “the most problematic” issue of all.
“Mistakes happen,” Perry told prosecutors on May 21. “They happen to all of us. But as I tell my children, you own it. You admit to it. You apologize for it, and you move on. What you do not do is hide it.”
Boutros came to Perry’s courtroom later that day to personally dismiss the charges against the “Broadview Six.” But he went on to say the conduct that took place outside the Broadview immigration facility is “unacceptable in a civilized society.”
Perry told him, “you are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants.”
Weighing the decision
Four weeks later, the former “Broadview Six” defendants asked Perry to take the extraordinary step of appointing an independent special counsel to investigate — and possibly prosecute — Boutros and other Justice Department officials for criminal contempt.
They’ve separately asked for sanctions and attorneys fees. Though Boutros’ office agreed not to fight them on the latter, it’s unclear whether Perry will allow defense attorneys to seek evidence of bad faith by the feds.
Boutros acknowledged this month that “mistakes were made.” But he said he’s already put reforms in place to prevent them from happening again. He pointed out his office has not been accused of explicitly violating Perry’s order regarding the grand jury transcripts, though he admitted the “better course” would have been to give her unredacted copies of the grand jury transcripts in the first place.
“The court’s message has been clearly heard and there is no need to do more,” he wrote in a 52-page court filing. “The office has not taken lightly this court’s statement about losing trust.”
Defense attorneys are expected to file their final briefs on the matter Sept. 1.
Wood spent nearly seven years as chief judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she’d been appointed by President Bill Clinton. She explained how Perry might begin weighing the matter.
First, Wood said, judges want to make sure their understanding of what happened in a case is “as accurate as possible.” Then, Wood said, there’s the question of “what legal theories were [prosecutors] pursuing?”
Rotert, who once worked with Perry in Foxx’s office, expects Perry to focus on whether the U.S. attorney’s office is being run in a way that’s likely to prevent another “Broadview Six.”
“Her function now is going to be, ‘Can we have confidence that the office is doing this work in a way that’s been proven to minimize these kinds of mistakes?’” Rotert said. “That’s where, I think, she’s going to be going.
“She knows how a good prosecutor should function, because she was a good prosecutor,” he added. “She knows how a good office should structure itself and manage itself to produce the best possible results, because she was involved in those kinds of offices.”
‘These are not ordinary times’
The aggressive policies of Trump’s second term have prompted several challenges in Chicago’s federal courthouse. Biden and President Barack Obama appointed more than half of the active members of the bench, including the judges who wound up handling such cases.
“The federal judiciary is an independent branch of government, and judges decide each matter based on the record before them and the applicable law — not the identity of the parties, partisan interests, public pressure or the administration under which a judge was appointed,” said Lewis, the court’s spokesman.
Some notable cases also went to magistrate judges, who are named by the presidentially appointed judges and handle day-to-day tasks.
The court is led by Kendall, appointed by President George W. Bush. In July 2025, the judges chose Boutros to serve as U.S. attorney after a temporary appointment by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Justice Department sued Illinois, Chicago and Cook County early in Trump’s second term over sanctuary policies, which mean local authorities won’t help federal authorities track down immigrants without legal status.
U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins, a Biden appointee, tossed the lawsuit in July 2025. It’s now on appeal.
Then Midway Blitz began, followed by Perry’s order blocking National Guard deployment. Soon, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered then-Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino into her courtroom. She wanted to speak with the leader of the deportation campaign about his “obligations under the law.”
Ellis, an Obama appointee, later handed down an order that restricted the feds’ use of force and accused Bovino of lying. The federal appeals court later vacated it.
Meanwhile, grand jurors began rejecting Midway Blitz charges brought by Boutros’ office. While that had once been seen as an extremely rare rebuke, Chicago’s federal court later adopted a rule requiring public disclosure of such an event, under certain circumstances.
“These are not ordinary times at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes wrote in a November opinion, highlighting the collapse of early Midway Blitz cases.
Twenty-five of 33 known defendants charged in such cases have now been cleared. Two people have pleaded guilty.
The judicial pushback reached a fever pitch after Perry alleged wrongdoing in the “Broadview Six” case. Three other judges threatened hearings, and one of them actually forced Boutros into her courtroom.
The first threat came from U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, an Obama appointee. She presides over a case tied to Loretto Hospital that was also handled by Mecklenburg, the former lead “Broadview Six” prosecutor.
Boutros’ office avoided a hearing in Coleman’s courtroom by permanently dropping criminal charges against two defendants.
Then, a separate scandal erupted over the attempted robbery of undercover federal officers in Country Club Hills. U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling threatened to hold a sanctions hearing when video surfaced that appeared to contradict an FBI agent’s sworn affidavit.
Boutros’ office argued the judge didn’t have the authority to hold such a hearing. Holleb Hotaling wound up agreeing to a “brief” delay and has yet to reschedule.
Finally, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally ordered Boutros into her courtroom July 9 after he discussed details of a sealed case involving the Tren de Aragua gang at a press conference with then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel.
McNally found her order sealing the case had been violated. But beyond forcing Boutros to explain himself in court, the judge ordered no sanction.
Observers wondered if McNally would go further. But harsh sanctions could trigger appeals, Wood noted. And there aren’t many tools available to judges to enforce their orders, she added.
Judges can impose monetary sanctions, report lawyers to disciplinary bodies and hold people in contempt. Wood said those “are all meaningful sanctions, but it’s not a long list.”
“I think the judges are trying to keep the process honest,” Wood said. “But at the same time, not use the most dramatic power until the need arises.
“They want to save it for the really important moments.”