The DOJ Just Admitted to Weaponizing a Prosecution Against Trump’s Foes |
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A federal court threw out all charges against the Broadview Six—a group of protesters accused of obstructing a Chicago ICE facility—during a heated hearing on Thursday at which Justice Department officials apologized for egregious misconduct in securing the indictments. U.S. District Judge April Perry excoriated prosecutors for using illegal tactics to get the criminal charges past a skeptical grand jury, dressing down U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and his colleagues for their “incredibly shock[ing]” malfeasance. The Broadview Six will now walk free, and may even apply for President Donald Trump’s fund for victims of government “weaponization.”
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the prosecution’s sudden collapse, Perry’s remarkable condemnation of Trump’s Justice Department, and the surprising implications of the case for the weaponization slush fund. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited for length and clarity.
Dahlia Lithwick: Even by the low, low standards of the DOJ these days, this was quite a bomb. Judge Perry told the U.S. attorney: “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.” And she added: “I think there is also a potential here, separate and apart from the merits of this case and how this case ends up proceeding, on sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct and for potential ethical violations, including lack of candor to the court.” Walk us through what happened here.
Mark Joseph Stern: Prosecutors had tried to conceal these grand jury........