US attorney's testimony in 'Broadview Six' case delayed until December

Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune on Nov 12, 2026

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CHICAGO — A federal judge on Thursday agreed to delay by two weeks a potentially explosive hearing into prosecutorial misconduct in the now-defunct “Broadview Six” case.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and several assistant prosecutors had been ordered by U.S. District Judge April Perry to testify under oath on Monday about their actions in the case, which was dismissed in May amid allegations of misconduct before the grand jury and an effort to hide it from the judge.

But after several attorneys representing the witnesses asked for more time, Perry agreed to postpone the long-anticipated hearing until Dec. 2, a move the judge said was “with the consent” of the Justice Department. Monday’s court date will be converted to a status hearing, Perry said in an order.

Also Thursday, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and his team submitted a revised log listing communications that they argue are off-limits in Perry’s inquiry.

The judge had given them until 3 p.m. Thursday to provide information that she said was lacking in the original production, including the authors and specific recipients of email exchanges between DOJ and the U.S. attorney’s office about the case.

While the delay gives some reprieve to the beleaguered U.S. attorney’s office, Perry has so far shot down attempts by the Justice Department to limit or derail the proceedings, which could offer the unprecedented spectacle of Boutros being ordered by his bosses in the Attorney General’s Office not to answer certain questions, or even with Chicago’s top federal law enforcement officer asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.

The situation has escalated over the past several days, first with the dispute over the privilege log, which Perry described on Tuesday as “noncompliant.”

Woodward later upped the ante in a filing Tuesday arguing Perry had overstepped her authority by ordering Boutros and other prosecutors to testify. The filing demanded Perry “clarify” her goals for the upcoming hearing, including whether it was to gather evidence for a future criminal contempt proceeding.

“The court has presented the United States Attorney and his subordinates with a Catch-22,” Woodward argued. “They can testify and risk prosecution, or they can assert their rights under the Fifth Amendment and risk antagonizing the court, while it may also be considering non-contempt sanctions.”

Woodward then suggested the hearing should be called off entirely and let the Justice Department pursue its own internal investigation.

“If the court does not think it currently has sufficient evidence for a (criminal contempt) referral, but also thinks it cannot attain such evidence without conducting an improper inquiry, the solution, however unsatisfying, is to simply not conduct the inquiry and leave the matter to the Executive Branch,” the DOJ filing stated.

By early Wednesday, however, Perry shot the idea down in yet another minute order on the public docket. She said she has the inherent authority to have a hearing over factual matters, and noted the DOJ doesn’t even represent most of those who will testify, including three assistant U.S. attorneys, William Hogan, Matthew Skiba and Andres Almandarez.

“Ultimately, the Government’s professed lack of clarity about the Court’s inherent authority to ask lawyers who have made misstatements to or misled the Court to explain their actions is immaterial,” Perry wrote. “The Government does not represent at least 3/4 of the individuals who have been asked to testify, two of whom have expressed their willingness to do so.”

She also wrote there “is no indication on the docket that the Government represents the fourth individual” — a reference to Boutros himself.

The Broadview Six indictment was one of the most serious cases brought against protesters during Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation push last fall.

The felony charges alleged the six defendants — most of whom had ties to local Democratic politics — crowded around an ICE agent’s vehicle outside the Broadview ICE facility in September 2025, banged on the car and windows, and pushed against it to hinder and impede its movement.

Boutros was forced to drop all charges in May after it was revealed the lead prosecutor, Sheri Mecklenburg, had allegedly committed misconduct before the grand jury.

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