Remaining Broadview 6 defendants want records showing Trump administration's influence on conspiracy case
Four demonstrators who say they’ve been targeted for conspiracy charges because they spoke out against the Trump administration want a judge to force prosecutors to hand over records that could show the White House improperly influenced their indictment.
A new 26-page motion lays out a case that the charges leveled against the group, including congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, is another example of President Donald Trump's administration using the Justice Department to target his “perceived political enemies.”
“The record readily shows how the Trump administration and its allies have expressly targeted Ms. Abughazaleh on numerous occasions in response to her public criticisms of it and its aggressive immigration enforcement tactics,” the defense attorneys wrote.
Abughazaleh is running in Tuesday’s primary for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.
But the new motion also points to the activism of Abughazaleh’s co-defendants. They include Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt and Andre Martin, a senior member of Abughazaleh’s campaign.
The motion comes one day after prosecutors dropped charges against two of the original six defendants in the case: Joselyn Walsh, a musician, and Catherine “Cat” Sharp, a Democrat who dropped her bid for Cook County Board in Tuesday’s primary to fight the charges.
The conspiracy case is set for trial May 26. The charges revolve around events on the morning of Sept. 26 outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview. Prosecutors on Friday said they intend to narrow the case to claims that the group conspired to prevent, "by force and intimidation," a federal agent from discharging his duties.
Defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge April Perry on Friday to force prosecutors to turn over records relating to “any improper influence exerted upon the U.S. Attorney’s office” that was tied to the targeting of the four defendants.
They also sought a federal agent’s training records and internal communications between the feds related to crowd management outside the Broadview facility.
The defense attorneys included a photo of Trump’s image at the front entryway to the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., alleging the department is being used to retaliate against Trump's enemies.
The attorneys noted that far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who reportedly has the president’s ear, “praised” an agent who body-slammed Abughazaleh during a Sept. 19 protest outside the ICE facility.
They also pointed to media reports placing Abughazaleh on a so-called “Enemies List.”
An image from an MS NOW report that depicts congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh on a so-called Justice Department “Enemies List.” It was included in a motion filed Friday by lawyers for Abughazaleh and three others charged in a conspiracy tied to a protest in suburban Broadview.
U.S. District Court records
Straw has spoken out against ICE as well, including by seeking termination of Oak Park’s contract for Flock's automated license plate readers, according to the motion.
He did so while noting that the data it collects has been used by ICE for immigration enforcement, the attorneys wrote.
Rabbitt was also among 47 congressional, state and local elected officials who signed a letter denouncing violence by federal agents, they noted.
The indictment in the case alleges that, while a federal agent drove a vehicle toward the Broadview facility, the defendants and others surrounded it. Members of the crowd allegedly banged on the vehicle, pushed against it, scratched it and even etched the word “PIG” into it.
The crowd allegedly broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper and forced the agent “to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed.”
The defense attorneys insisted Friday that none of their clients “utilized or exerted any force against the agent. No defendant threatened the agent or made any threat whatsoever. No defendant did anything to intimidate the agent.
“No defendant scratched the vehicle,” they wrote. “No defendant etched the word ‘Pig’ onto the vehicle. No defendant pulled the wiper blade off the vehicle.”
“The one commonality among these four defendants,” they insisted, “is that via social media platforms and public statements they were all outspoken critics of the Trump administration.”