'A decision I needed to make': Cook County Board candidate suspends campaign to fight indictment

The phone rang for Catherine “Cat” Sharp late last October, while she sat at her desk at work, back when news swirled daily about the Trump administration’s deportation campaign around Chicago.

The call appeared to be from the federal government. But as chief of staff for Chicago’s 40th Ward alderperson, that didn’t seem unusual. So she picked up.

“They identified themselves as the FBI,” said Sharp, who was also running as a Democrat for Cook County Board, “and informed me that they were asking for me to turn myself in the next morning.”

News soon broke that Sharp and five others, dubbed the “Broadview Six”, faced a conspiracy indictment tied to protests in Broadview against “Operation Midway Blitz.” But it wasn’t until Monday, two months later, that Sharp announced the suspension of her campaign for the Cook County Board’s 12th District seat to focus on her legal defense in a case criticized as an attack on the First Amendment.

Sharp, 29, explained her decision in an interview Tuesday with the Chicago Sun-Times. She acknowledged the financial cost of simultaneously running a campaign and mounting a defense in federal court.

But she also said that her initial phone call from the FBI came as a “huge shock” — one that she’s still processing. And, she added, “it is hugely stressful to feel that my freedoms are under threat.”

“To be a single person, being up against the Trump administration and the federal government, is hugely stressful and has interrupted my ability to really be able to run a campaign that I’m proud of,” Sharp said.

“I’m very lucky that I have amazing friends and family members who have been there for me as I’ve been navigating this,” she added.

The case against Sharp is among the most high-profile criminal prosecutions, unrelated to immigration, brought in federal court as a result of “Operation Midway Blitz.” Also charged is Kat Abughazaleh, another Democrat running for Illinois’ 9th District congressional seat.

So is Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and Andre Martin.

Each of them face a prison sentence of up to seven years.

Four of the six are Democratic politicians, and defense attorneys have said they may file a “selective prosecution motion.” So far, they’ve asked prosecutors for any “White House communications” tied to the case.

The 11-page indictment against Sharp and her co-defendants alleges that, while an agent drove a vehicle toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Broadview on Sept. 26, the six and others surrounded it. Members of that group allegedly banged on the vehicle, pushed against it, scratched it and even etched the word “PIG” onto it.

They also allegedly broke a side mirror, a rear windshield wiper and forced the agent “to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed.”

Much of what happened was caught on video, though defense attorneys say it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Sharp declined during Tuesday’s interview to discuss the allegations.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros has said that “all federal officials must be able to discharge the duties of their office without confronting force, intimidation or threats.”

Still, federal cases brought against “Operation Midway Blitz” protesters have been viewed with some skepticism. Among at least 31 defendants, charges have already been dropped against 14. No one has been convicted.

Abughazaleh took the rare step in October of announcing the federal charges on social media and promised her followers regular updates about the case. But Sharp, when asked Tuesday whether she felt the indictment helped her campaign said, “I certainly was told that.”

“But overall — I mean, as evidenced by me suspending the campaign — it was not beneficial,” Sharp said.

She said she was conscious that some might see her as being bullied out of the race by the Trump administration. But she said she wanted to “push back against that.”

“In the last couple months, with Midway Blitz, I’ve been really proud to have organized Know Your Rights town halls and get neighbors more engaged,” Sharp said. “… In suspending my campaign, I’m going to have more availability to recommit to that work.”

In her statement Monday night, she added that, “I’m not going anywhere." And she promised to continue her work as chief of staff for Ald. Andre Vasquez.

She also said she’d been trying, in the last two months, to balance “two hugely stressful things.” That includes her campaign “where every moment that you’re not spending knocking on doors and trying to raise funds for the campaign feels like you’re not doing enough.”

She insisted she could only speak about her own experience — acknowledging it’s “only a small piece of what other families are having to navigate right now in Chicago, and across the country” while being targeted by immigration authorities.

But going into the holiday season, when family is the top priority, Sharp said, “it just resonated a bit more that this is a decision I needed to make.

“To put myself, my loved ones and my family first.”