Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros may have had personal contact with grand jurors in the now-tainted prosecution against the group of Operation Midway Blitz protesters known as the “Broadview Six,” a defense attorney told a judge Tuesday.
Shortly after hearing that possibility, U.S. District Judge April Perry summoned lawyers into her chambers to discuss the question out of earshot of the public. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said it should be discussed privately because it involved grand jury proceedings.
Still, MacArthur said prosecutors do not generally oppose the release of grand jury transcripts from the “Broadview Six” case, subject to certain redactions. Their release would be extremely unusual, given that grand juries customarily operate in secrecy.
In a statement later Tuesday, a spokesman for Boutros said he had “not appeared before any grand jury on any particular case.”
“Any appearance he has made in the grand juries has been in his capacity as the Chief Legal Advisor to the federal grand juries of this district, including to welcome them when they were impaneled or to advise generally on the role, function, and importance of the grand jury in our constitutional system of laws,” the spokesperson said.
Last week’s revelations in the case put Perry and the lawyers in extremely unusual territory, though.
The case fell apart, days before trial, after Perry discovered improprieties during grand jury proceedings. The alleged misconduct came to light only after a lengthy push by defense attorneys to get Perry to review unredacted transcripts of what occurred.
It included a prosecutor improperly putting her personal credibility on the line to support criminal charges, a prosecutor having substantive contact with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, and a prosecutor excusing grand jurors who disagreed with the case.
Charged were former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and onetime Abughazaleh campaign worker Andre Martin.
They were accused of joining a larger crowd that surrounded an immigration agent’s vehicle last September. The crowd pushed, scratched and otherwise damaged the agent’s SUV. Of that crowd, federal prosecutors charged only six people, all largely involved in local Democratic politics, raising questions about selective prosecution and freedom of expression.
It all occurred during the Trump administration’s Midway Blitz deportation campaign last fall.
Tuesday’s disclosure about Boutros’ potential contact with the grand jury came from Straw attorney Christopher Parente. He shared no additional details during the public portion of Tuesday’s hearing, though.
Boutros told Perry on Thursday he wasn’t aware of the alleged grand jury misconduct until late April. He later announced a review of grand jury presentations in other cases that could have been tainted similarly to the “Broadview Six” case.
Lawyers returned to Perry’s courtroom Tuesday for the first time since the revelations rocked the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. When Tuesday’s hearing began, MacArthur told the judge she’d be handling the case from here on out.
“Thank you for volunteering as tribute,” Perry told MacArthur when court began.
MacArthur is a longtime, well-regarded veteran of the U.S. attorney’s office. She participated in the trials of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and ex-Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke, which both ended with convictions for the once-powerful politicians.
Perry called Tuesday’s hearing to consider a request from Straw that she order prosecutors to preserve communications related to the grand jury proceedings.
Though prosecutors officially opposed such an order, MacArthur explained Boutros’ office had already taken multiple steps to preserve records from the case. She said a “litigation hold” was sought Saturday at the national Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
She said that triggered an indefinite hold on text messages, documents and notes relating to the grand jury and the decision by previous prosecutors to redact transcripts from the proceedings.
MacArthur said the hold applies to all former prosecutors on the “Broadview Six” case as well as three top leaders in Boutros’ office.
However, when defense attorneys sought an order from Perry that would have gone further — covering agents in the case — she told them she had questions about their ability to participate in the case going forward.
Martin attorney Terence Campbell insisted to the judge, “I would like everyone who is involved to take notice that, hey, there are issues here. There are going to be further proceedings of some sort, before this court and maybe others. And they ought to preserve [records].”
The lawyers are now expected to spend the coming weeks filing briefs addressing Perry’s question, as well as possible sanctions and public disclosure of grand jury transcripts. MacArthur said the transcripts should be redacted to protect personal information, as well as the personal feelings of the grand jurors about the case.
Rabbitt attorney Nancy DePodesta said the “back-and-forth with the grand jurors is critical context.”
Perry told the lawyers to put their heads together to see what they could agree on. She asked them to file a brief regarding the redactions by June 5, so the transcript likely will not become public before then.