Grand juror called DOJ’s controversial Chicago protest indictment ‘a crock’ before it was approved, transcript shows

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — Some grand jurors in Chicago told the Justice Department in October they were skeptical of a proposed indictment of six Democratic politicians and activists who had protested outside a federal immigration detention center outside Chicago, according to newly released transcripts of the October grand jury sessions.

“Do you have unlimited tries?” one grand juror asked prosecutors a week after the grand jury had already voted against the indictment. The Justice Department was trying again.

A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday authorized the release of several pages of transcripts from October grand jury proceedings where the protesters, now known as the “Broadview Six,” were charged. It is exceedingly rare for full grand jury transcripts, showing prosecutors’ interactions with the grand jury members analyzing a possible criminal case, to be made public.

In recent weeks, the grand jury issues in the Broadview Six case have sent the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago, and its US Attorney Andrew Boutros, into crisis. Pushback from defense attorneys and scrutiny from judges — on the Broadview Six case and others — will continue following the release of the transcripts.

A judge had already characterized the exchanges as improper. She noted in a hearing in May that line prosecutors vouched for their evidence and injected their own views into the proceedings. The judge said the prosecutors had sent home a grand juror who indicated they would vote no on the indictment, a week after the indictment failed to win support last October.

The grand jury was meeting every Thursday last fall to examine cases prosecutors proposed. This case was presented to the same grand jury three weeks in a row in October, but not all grand jurors needed to be present each session.

After one grand juror asked if there were new facts to add to the case, one of the prosecutors responded, “I’m feeling the skepticism already. Are you going to be able to listen with an open mind? Tell me the truth.”

“I heard this case like last week and I thought it was a crock of shit then and I still think it is,” the unnamed grand juror responded, according to the newly released transcripts.

The prosecutor then excused the grand juror — an approach so problematic, the US attorney’s office cut short the session without asking the grand jury to vote again.

A week later, the grand jury approved an indictment of the Broadview Six — its third session about the case.

The US attorney’s office dropped the charges against them last month shortly after the judge, April Perry, read the previously secret grand jury transcripts.

“These transcripts prove that the grand jury in the Broadview 6 case repeatedly attempted to say ‘no’ to this sham political indictment,” Christopher Parente, an attorney for one of the Broadview Six defendants, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This DOJ has violated the good faith foundation of the grand jury process to weaponize indictments and subvert the law.”

Continued fallout

The situation also has raised questions about the possible involvement of Justice Department political leadership in the Chicago office’s prosecution efforts of the Democratic activists. Last week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche voiced his support for Boutros.

However, a lower-level prosecutor told the grand jury on the Broadview Six case in October, “I do not want to touch politics with a ten-foot pole,” and that “we’re putting blinders on to politics,” given that the case involved federal immigration law enforcement, according to the newly released transcripts.

More than 100 alumni of the office, including several well-known former federal prosecutors, issued a written statement on Monday saying they believed the office was suffering from “a failure of leadership” and that “once-forbidden political considerations are infecting prosecutorial decisions.”

Also this week, defense attorneys in at least two other cases in the Northern District of Illinois’ trial-level court have raised the Broadview Six grand jury debacle as reason for judges to review prosecutors’ work in other criminal cases.

Boutros has boasted about his aggressive approach to charging cases, especially related to gun crimes, and also says he’s “spent the last year righting the ship through significant changes and reforms,” according to a statement his office posted on social media yesterday.

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