QP!
Verified User
No this is not the Albrego Garcia case just dismissed for its Grand Jury abuse by the DoJ, in a mostly unheard of finding of "malicious prosecution" that Trumps DoJ could not even defend against. This one appears to be even worse abuse...
In a dramatic final twist to the highest-profile criminal case resulting from “Operation Midway Blitz,” the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday dropped all charges against the remaining “Broadview Six” protesters, citing apparent prosecutorial misconduct in the grand jury proceedings that led to last fall’s indictments....
...a federal judge canceled the trial after a closed-door hearing in which she rebuked prosecutors for both their dealings with the grand jury and for having previously obscured parts of the grand jury transcript that would have revealed their apparent misconduct earlier....
U.S. District Judge April Perry told assistant U.S. attorneys on the case that she was “incredibly shocked” by the redactions in an earlier version of the grand jury transcript compared with the full unredacted version she read earlier this week.
“I have read hundreds — if not thousands — of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. Attorneys who appeared before the grand jury,” ... “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, the Trump administration’s highest-ranking official in Chicago, took the extraordinary step of showing up in person to Perry’s courtroom in order to take responsibility for his office’s actions and ask that the remaining charges be dropped....
Perry had told the lawyers in the earlier closed-door hearing that there was likely potential for sanctions on assistant U.S. attorneys “for prosecutorial misconduct and for potential ethical violations, including lack of candor to the court.”...
... Perry summarized several issues she said jumped out at her “immediately and glaringly” upon reading the full grand jury transcript. The first of those concerns, according to the judge, was improper “prosecutorial vouching,” in which an assistant U.S. attorney put “her personal credibility and trustworthiness on the line in support of the charges,”...
The same prosecutor also apparently excused grand jurors “who disagreed with the government’s case” when presented with it during the first of three sessions, asking them “to not partake in the second hearing,”...
Perry said ...there had been “improper prosecutorial communications of a substantive nature with the grand jurors outside of the grand jury room.”
...“I will tell your honor that as upset as you are, and have been — I, too, had not seen conduct like that, and it upset me — which is why we did dismiss that indictment,” Boutros said.
‘Broadview 6’ trial canceled as prosecutors acknowledge misconduct before grand jury
Stunning decision comes days before rare federal misdemeanor trial was set to begin
- Just days before the remaining “Broadview Six” protesters were set to face a rare trial on misdemeanor charges, federal prosecutors on Thursday dropped all charges against them.
- The surprise move came after U.S. District Judge April Perry took prosecutors to task in a closed-door hearing earlier that day, during which she all but accused assistant U.S. attorneys of prosecutorial misconduct in front of the grand jury.
- U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros took responsibility for his deputies’ behavior in front of the grand jury, but when he attempted to defend the charges he’d just moved to dismiss, the judge accused him of “continuing to vilify these particular defendants.”
In a dramatic final twist to the highest-profile criminal case resulting from “Operation Midway Blitz,” the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday dropped all charges against the remaining “Broadview Six” protesters, citing apparent prosecutorial misconduct in the grand jury proceedings that led to last fall’s indictments....
...a federal judge canceled the trial after a closed-door hearing in which she rebuked prosecutors for both their dealings with the grand jury and for having previously obscured parts of the grand jury transcript that would have revealed their apparent misconduct earlier....
U.S. District Judge April Perry told assistant U.S. attorneys on the case that she was “incredibly shocked” by the redactions in an earlier version of the grand jury transcript compared with the full unredacted version she read earlier this week.
“I have read hundreds — if not thousands — of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. Attorneys who appeared before the grand jury,” ... “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, the Trump administration’s highest-ranking official in Chicago, took the extraordinary step of showing up in person to Perry’s courtroom in order to take responsibility for his office’s actions and ask that the remaining charges be dropped....
Perry had told the lawyers in the earlier closed-door hearing that there was likely potential for sanctions on assistant U.S. attorneys “for prosecutorial misconduct and for potential ethical violations, including lack of candor to the court.”...
... Perry summarized several issues she said jumped out at her “immediately and glaringly” upon reading the full grand jury transcript. The first of those concerns, according to the judge, was improper “prosecutorial vouching,” in which an assistant U.S. attorney put “her personal credibility and trustworthiness on the line in support of the charges,”...
The same prosecutor also apparently excused grand jurors “who disagreed with the government’s case” when presented with it during the first of three sessions, asking them “to not partake in the second hearing,”...
Perry said ...there had been “improper prosecutorial communications of a substantive nature with the grand jurors outside of the grand jury room.”
...“I will tell your honor that as upset as you are, and have been — I, too, had not seen conduct like that, and it upset me — which is why we did dismiss that indictment,” Boutros said.
