Feds say they’ll drop conspiracy charge against remaining ‘Broadview
Six’ protesters
[April 30, 2026]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — In a surprise move Wednesday, federal prosecutors said they
intend to drop the main conspiracy charge against a handful of
politically active protesters indicted last fall in connection with a
demonstration outside a suburban U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement facility.
The unexpected action ahead of a scheduled May 26 trial significantly
pares down the feds’ case against the “Broadview Six,” which was already
whittled down last month after prosecutors dropped all charges against
two defendants.
The group still includes former congressional candidate Katherine “Kat”
Abughazaleh and her deputy campaign manager, Andre Martin. Abughazaleh’s
social media video of the Sept. 26 protest captured the moment she and
dozens of others surrounded an ICE vehicle that drove through the
demonstrating crowd, banging on its windows.
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s hearing, defense attorneys
framed the feds’ intent to dismiss the conspiracy charge as a victory,
but also an acknowledgement that the charges were “baseless … from the
start,” said Nancy DePodesta, a lawyer for Chicago 45th Ward Democratic
Committeeman Michael Rabbitt, a defendant who previously ran for the
Illinois House.
Chris Parente, who represents another defendant, Oak Park trustee Brian
Straw, said they’d “take the win for right now, but we’re still very
angry that they ever charged this,” pointing to the possibility that
would-be protesters stayed home for fear of being charged “for just
standing there and exercising their right of freedom of assembly to
protest what this administration is doing.”
“We don’t know how many people stayed at home because they were worried
about being indicted with a bulls–t 372 (conspiracy) charge by this U.S.
attorney’s office, and now they’re going to dismiss it,” Parente said of
prosecutors.
The charges stem from a late September demonstration at the height of
protests outside the ICE facility in Broadview, a few weeks into the
Trump administration’s Chicago-focused mass deportation campaign dubbed
“Operation Midway Blitz.”
An October indictment charged the group with an overarching count of
felony conspiracy, which alleged they conspired to “interrupt, hinder,
and impede” a federal immigration agent from the “discharge of his
official duties.” They still face charges for misdemeanor simple assault
of a federal officer, which does not require physical contact.
The vehicle’s windshield wipers were damaged and someone scratched “PIG”
into its side, though the government has acknowledged it isn’t alleging
any of the defendants perpetrated those specific acts of vandalism.
A trial in the case is still scheduled for May 26, but U.S. District
Judge April Perry hinted at possible alternative endings to litigation.
Grand jury transcripts
Wednesday’s revelation also blocked defense attorneys from seeing
unredacted transcripts of the grand jury sessions that resulted in the
October indictment. Perry last week scheduled Wednesday’s hearing to
resolve certain legal issues before trial and ordered prosecutors to
bring copies of those grand jury transcripts to court.
But just as she was asking government lawyers if they objected to the
transcripts being provided to defendants, Assistant U.S. Attorney
William Hogan told the judge she’d “find that is moot” as prosecutors
were moving to dismiss the conspiracy count. The conspiracy charge was
the only felony in the indictment and grand juries do not generally
consider misdemeanor charges.
Defense attorneys on Wednesday suggested the move to dismiss the
conspiracy charge may have been partially motivated by the feds’ desire
to keep the grand jury transcripts out of their hands.
Parente pointed out that it took three separate grand jury sessions to
deliver an indictment.
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Former 9th District congressional candidate Katherine “Kat”
Abughazaleh addresses reporters following her Nov. 12, 2025,
arraignment hearing in Chicago. She and five others were charged
with “impeding” a federal agent while protesting outside of an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in suburban
Broadview in September. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Maggie
Dougherty)
“Why can’t we see that? Why can’t the people of this district know what
the government said to that grand jury?” he asked reporters. “We’d love
to know, and we’re going to keep pushing for it, because we think we
have a right to know.”
First Amendment issues
Even after prosecutors said they would move to dismiss the conspiracy
charge, Judge Perry on Wednesday delivered her ruling on defense
attorneys’ earlier motion to dismiss that same charge on First Amendment
grounds, denying the motion.
After a brief back-and-forth with lawyers about whether the protesters’
hands on the ICE vehicle was an expression of free speech or merely a
way to protect themselves from the massive SUV cutting through the
crowd, Perry said she could only rely on the facts alleged in the
indictment.
“The indictment is not seeking to punish protected speech,” she said,
noting the feds weren’t alleging protesters’ signs and chants were
criminal acts.
But prosecutors also want to admit those chants and signs as evidence in
the case to show demonstrators’ intent, which the judge said she’d
consider closer to trial — if it still moves forward.
Perry’s ruling follows another she made earlier this month, declining to
grant defendants’ motion to dismiss charges on selective prosecution
grounds. Lawyers argued that the Department of Justice targeted the six
original defendants because they were mostly elected officials and
candidates. They also demanded the government turn over any
communications between White House officials that might show undue
influence on prosecutors.
But no such records exist, prosecutors said, maintaining that the
defendants were indicted because their faces were visible in photo and
video footage reviewed by the government, and not because of their
status as politicians. Perry noted that the indictment of public
officials is the “bread and butter of the U.S. attorney’s office” as
bringing public officials to justice is “considered a good deterrent.”
“Being a politician is not a protected class,” Perry said.
Abughazaleh is no longer a politician after last month’s primary, having
finished second in a crowded primary for Illinois’ 9th congressional
district, though the influencer-turned-candidate recently announced her
campaign apparatus would live on as an advocacy organization.
In a social media statement Wednesday, Abughazaleh said the case “has
cost … immeasurable amounts of stress, money, and opportunity.”
Lawyer Parente also pointed to Catherine “Cat” Sharp’s January decision
to drop out of a race for a Cook County Board seat, saying the case
“cost one defendant — who they (prosecutors) dismissed — a chance to run
for an elected office.”
The other defendant whose charges were dismissed last month, Joselyn
Walsh, does not work in politics but performed songs during protests at
Broadview. During the same Sept. 26 demonstration at issue in the case,
federal agents shot a rubber bullet through Walsh’s guitar.
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