Congressional candidate and social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh is charged in a newly unsealed federal indictment with conspiring to impede a U.S. law enforcement officer last month outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview.
Others facing the same charge in the 11-page indictment made public Wednesday are Catherine Sharp, who is running for a seat on the Cook County Board, and Michael Rabbitt, a 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson.
Also charged are Andre Martin, Brian Straw and Joselyn Walsh.
Arraignments have not been scheduled for any of the defendants. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge April Perry.
The indictment alleges that the six were among a group of people who surrounded a government vehicle near the Broadview facility Sept. 26 and set out to “hinder and impede” a federal agent from proceeding there and “discharging the duties of his office.”
It says they “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s side and back windows, hood and other areas, “crowded together” in front and on the side of it and “pushed against the vehicle” and scratched it.
They also etched the word “PIG” on the vehicle and broke a side mirror and rear windshield wiper, according to the indictment.
The agent “was forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators,” the indictment states.
Abughazaleh on Wednesday called the indictment “a political prosecution and a gross attempt at silencing dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment.”
She also posted a social media video responding to the charges.
“This case is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish those who dare to speak up. That’s why I’m going to fight these unjust charges,” she said in a statement. “As I and others exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and teargassed hundreds of protesters, myself included. Simply because we had the gall to say masked men abducting our neighbors and terrorizing our community cannot be the new normal.”
Abughazaleh, 26, is running for the 9th Congressional District seat to replace Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who announced in May she was stepping down for the seat she’s held since 1999.
Sharp is running for Cook County commissioner in the 12th District.
“The charges brought against Ms. Sharp are ludicrous. We are confident that a jury of Ms. Sharp’s peers will see them for exactly what they are: an effort by the Trump administration to frighten people out of participating in protest and exercising their First Amendment rights,” Molly Armour, an attorney for Sharp told the Chicago Sun-Times in a statement.
Rabbitt serves as the Democratic committeeperson for the 45th Ward. He also serves as the head of business transformation at Argonne National Laboratory.
Straw is running for Oak Park village trustee. Straw posted on social media Oct. 10 about protesting outside the Broadview facility.
“I am sure that DHS will put out some propaganda regarding rioters, but this morning’s protest (as with the prior protest I was at) was peaceful,” Straw wrote. “Indeed, it felt a whole lot like going to church.”
Straw’s attorney did not immediately comment. No attorney was been listed in court records for Rabbitt or Martin.