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  "path": "/post/210906/feds-failed-case-broadview-6-grand-jury",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-26T20:20:20.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Department of Justice",
    "Chicago",
    "Immigration",
    "ICE",
    "Deportation",
    "Mass Deportations",
    "Arrest",
    "Immigration Detention",
    "Kat Abughazaleh",
    "grand jury",
    "felony conspiracy",
    "thrown out",
    "suggested",
    "according",
    "gave up",
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  "textContent": "The “Broadview Six,” the anti-ICE protesters whom the federal government tried to slap with felony conspiracy charges carrying a maximum sentence of six years in prison, had their case thrown out last week after District Judge April Perry determined top federal prosecutor Andrew Boutros botched the case.\n\nThings are now getting even worse for Boutros and his team.\n\nChristopher Parente, an attorney for one of the six defendants, suggested on Tuesday that Boutros had improper personal contact with the grand jury. After the allegation came to light, Perry summoned the lawyers present to discuss the matter privately in her chamber.\n\nAssistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said her fellow prosecutors would likely accept the release of grand jury transcripts, subject to redactions, so the public may be able to see what kind of personal contact Boutros had with the jurors in the future.\n\nThe “Broadview Six” were arrested after surrounding an ICE agent’s SUV outside a detention center in Broadview, Illinois, in September in an attempt to slow it down. The crowd “pushed and scratched and otherwise damaged,” the vehicle, according to the _Chicago Sun-Times_.\n\nLike many charges made against anti-ICE protesters, the government’s over-the-top prosecution failed to hold up. The government first gave up on charging two of the six. Then they threw out conspiracy charges against the other four—Brian Straw, Michael Rabbitt, Andre Martin, and then–congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh—and instead tried to convict them of a far less serious crime: one misdemeanor count each for impeding a federal agent.\n\nIn the end, Boutros couldn’t even do that. He dropped the charges with prejudice—meaning they cannot be refiled—after being criticized by Perry for more grand jury misconduct. Boutros’s assistants took transcripts of themselves explaining conspiracy law to the jury pool, then reportedly redacted some of the transcripts when Perry asked for them.\n\nAccording to the _Sun-Times,_ these transcripts included proof of one prosecutor staking her personal credibility in order to support the charges, another communicating with jurors outside the assigned jury room, and a third excusing jurors who didn’t agree with the prosecution’s argument.",
  "title": "Feds’ Failed Case Against “Broadview Six” Somehow Gets Even Messier"
}