{"id":81,"date":"2026-05-22T19:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:29:21","slug":"the-doj-just-admitted-to-weaponizing-a-prosecution-against-trumps-foes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=81","title":{"rendered":"The DOJ Just Admitted to Weaponizing a Prosecution Against Trump\u2019s Foes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sign up for\u00a0<\/em>Executive Dysfunction<\/em>, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story each week about how Trump is changing the law\u2014or how the law is pushing back. You\u2019ll also receive updates on the latest from Slate\u2019s Jurisprudence team.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more She\u2019s an Antisemite, a Sex Therapist, and a Democrat. Why Are Republicans Funding Her Campaign?<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal court threw out all charges against the Broadview Six\u2014a group of protesters accused of obstructing a Chicago ICE facility\u2014during 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 \u201cincredibly shock[ing]\u201d malfeasance. The Broadview Six will now walk free, and may even apply for President Donald Trump\u2019s fund for victims of government \u201cweaponization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On this week\u2019s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the prosecution\u2019s sudden collapse, Perry\u2019s remarkable condemnation of Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cI have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.\u201d And she added: \u201cI 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.\u201d Walk us through what happened here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mark Joseph Stern:<\/strong> Prosecutors had tried to conceal these grand jury transcripts from the court, and now we can see why. Here\u2019s what we discovered: First, prosecutors did something called \u201cvouching,\u201d assuring grand jurors that they are trustworthy and would never bring an unjust case, so the charges must be sound. That is fundamentally unfair and never allowed. Second, it turns out that the grand jury originally refused to indict the Broadview Six, and instead came back with what\u2019s called a \u201cno true bill.\u201d So prosecutors then allegedly removed the grand jurors who had refused to vote for an indictment, then went back to the remaining grand jurors and asked them to indict, which they did. That is obviously a violation of the Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n

Third, prosecutors allegedly had communications with grand jurors outside of the grand jury proceedings. We don\u2019t have clarity on exactly what was said, but based on Judge Perry\u2019s reaction, I strongly suspect they lobbied grand jurors to indict. That is, of course, totally improper and unacceptable. In light of these violations, the U.S. attorney moved to drop all the charges, and Judge Perry dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it can\u2019t be brought again. She also said that this Justice Department had lost \u201cthe presumption of regularity\u201d because the long-standing \u201ctrust\u201d in prosecutors\u2019 candor to the court \u201chas been broken.\u201d So we have yet another judge saying she can no longer trust Trump\u2019s DOJ to tell the truth or pursue justice.<\/p>\n

This case really concretizes something that\u2019s hard to pin down, which is the unbelievable power that the Justice Department has to ruin lives. We have this almost innate sense of: <\/strong>Well, if they indict someone, that person probably did something pretty bad<\/strong>. They don\u2019t go around indicting innocent protesters who did nothing, right? And this is a really useful corrective to the notion that every single time there\u2019s smoke, there\u2019s fire. Because that was trumped up smoke with no fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more Sam Alito\u2019s Math on \u201cColor-Blindness\u201d Doesn\u2019t Check Out<\/a><\/p>\n

We should also note that a federal prosecution like this absolutely ruins your life, even if you ultimately walk free. The Broadview Six ran up huge legal fees. They spent months thinking they might be sent to federal prison for years for exercising their First Amendment rights. So as great as this outcome is for them, I fear the Trump administration accomplished much of what it wanted to do through the lies and deceit and misconduct. Even though the Fifth Amendment ultimately kicked in and did its job, the government ruined lives in the process.<\/p>\n

I think this is really important\u2014the degree to which this prosecution is designed to chill First Amendment rights. This was designed to force every single person who is thinking of going to go out and protest to say, \u201cWow, they have this immense power. They brought these trumped up charges then they lied about it. They could get anyone for anything.\u201d And unless there are real consequences, what\u2019s to stop this from happening again? But one of the interesting back and forths in the transcript is that at the same time the U.S. attorney is abjectly apologizing, he\u2019s still saying he wished he could\u2019ve brought this to trial and that the defendants\u2019 behavior was \u201cunacceptable in a civilized society.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That led Judge Perry to retort: \u201cYou are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants.\u201d Thank goodness she was assigned this case; she worked in this very U.S. attorney\u2019s office for years, so she understands what a fall from grace this is. She was willing to hold prosecutors\u2019 feet to the fire and to review transcripts that they didn\u2019t want to turn over. But this is why the Trump administration is forum-shopping to keep its cases out of courtrooms like hers\u2014like taking a Rhode Island case to Texas, where it can hand-pick the MAGA judge it prefers.<\/p>\n

Now that all charges have been dismissed, a lawyer for the Broadview Six has <\/strong>indicated<\/strong> that they might apply for compensation from Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion slush fund for anyone who feels the Justice Department has been \u201cweaponized\u201d against them. This is funny, but it\u2019s also actually making a serious point.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It does make the obvious point that the people facing actual weaponization of the Justice Department are Donald Trump\u2019s perceived enemies: protesters, Democratic politicians, people exercising their First Amendment rights to oppose this regime. But I also think it could be tactically smart. There\u2019s been a lot of discussion about who would have standing to challenge this fund; who could go into federal court with a legitimate, personal claim and give a judge the opportunity to assess its illegality? And I think someone who applies for a payout from this fund with a colorable case of weaponization, but gets denied, may well have standing. They can say, \u201cIf this fund is legal, I deserve my payout.\u201d<\/p>\n

That gives the courts a chance to weigh in on the legality of the entire fund. They don\u2019t have to limit their review to whether or not the individual deserves a payout. They can examine whether the fund itself is lawful as a predicate to deciding whether the individual should get relief. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the tactic that the Broadview Six and their lawyers have in mind. But these are exactly the kind of people who would have the strongest claim of standing to challenge the whole scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more What\u2019s Going On With FEMA?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal court threw out all charges against the Broadview Six\u2014a group of protesters accused of obstructing a Chicago ICE facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24,10,57,58,64,18,11],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jurisprudence","tag-department-of-justice","tag-donald-trump","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-immigration","tag-judiciary","tag-jurisprudence"],"yoast_head":"\nThe DOJ Just Admitted to Weaponizing a Prosecution Against Trump\u2019s Foes - Home Move Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=81\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The DOJ Just Admitted to Weaponizing a Prosecution Against Trump\u2019s Foes - 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