Sheri Mecklenberg is back, baby! She wants in on the “Broadview 6” case which imploded in May after her gross misconduct before the grand jury was revealed. She is also outta here, dropping an epic resignation letter that is almost certainly a precursor to litigation against her former boss, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros.
It all started out so well! The Trump administration demanded that US Attorneys charge anti-ICE protesters with felonies, and in October, after an ICE agent drove his car into a crowd outside the immigration detention facility in suburban Chicago, Mecklenberg managed to indict six of them for conspiracy to obstruct an official in the discharge of his duties.
But it was not meant to be. Prosecutors spent several months trying to ward off demands to disclose the grand jury transcripts, all the while snorting indignantly that the defendants were “hysterically speculating about perceived misconduct in what was the normal practice in Chicago’s federal court.” The USAO even dismissed the felony charges and dropped the case down to a misdemeanor. In a last ditch effort, they gave Judge April Perry a selectively redacted transcript, allowing her to think the gaps were due to a technical problem.
On May 21, after finally receiving the full record, the judge said she’d “never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.” At the hearing, Boutros announced that he was dropping all charges and launching an investigation of all cases presented by Mecklenberg.
By then, Mecklenberg had been detailed to Senator Dick Durbin’s office, although her colleagues Drew Skiba and William Hogan, who worked the case with her and took over when she left, were still at the USAO.
Boutros tried to place the blame for the debacle solely on Mecklenberg, while simultaneously seeking to block any further investigation of his office. He even went so far as to agree to pay the defendants’ legal bills. But the defendants, who were apparently selected for prosecution because of their roles in local politics, were not mollified. They’ve requested that Judge Perry appoint a special counsel to investigate and potentially prosecute the responsible parties for criminal contempt.
That put Mecklenberg squarely in the frame, and yesterday she moved to intervene in the case “to address the Court, consistent with those positions, on specific aspects of her conduct that further demonstrate her actions were taken with no animus or ill will.” She insists that she kept the “front office” fully informed throughout her three presentations to the grand jury, and that Boutros and his team were aware of what she was doing in real time.
“When notified (through counsel) that she intended to file a motion to intervene, the U.S. Attorney’s Office advised that, as a Department of Justice employee, Ms. Mecklenburg was not permitted to file anything on her behalf and could be disciplined or terminated if she did so,” she added. “Ms. Mecklenburg then notified the U.S. Attorney’s Office that she was retiring, effective on September 24, in part so that she can address these issues on her own behalf.”
Unsurprisingly, the defendants do not object to Mecklenberg’s intervention!
Then this morning, Chicago’s Sun Times and Tribune each published Mecklenberg’s resignation letter in which she makes it entirely clear that, if she goes down, she’s taking Boutros with her.
Throughout all of this, I remained silent. But now the defense has leveled additional false and inflammatory accusations against me that the Office has not rebutted and apparently has no intention of rebutting. At the same time, you have threatened to terminate me if I attempt to rebut the false allegations and bring additional matters to the Court’s attention. You remind me that I am still a DOJ employee when you want to silence me, but you have not treated me as a DOJ employee throughout this matter, including when, in May, you placed me on leave and cut off my devices and credentials without any notice. Your adverse actions from the beginning have forced me to retain personal counsel to defend conduct undertaken as part of my employment, yet you have refused to indemnify me for the substantial resulting expense. Despite the adverse impact on my finances, you cannot buy my silence by dangling continued leave.
Mecklenburg says that she learned about the hearing that would end the case “after-the-fact from the media;” that he put her on leave while leaving Skiba and Hogan in place; that he cut off her devices and credentials “without any notice;” and that he declined to pay for the lawyers she hired from Akerman to defend work she did on the job.
Perhaps most saliently for the defendants, she says that she wanted to charge them with misdemeanors, but was overruled by Boutros and ordered to seek a felony indictment. (The USOA denies this.)
Mecklenburg hoped to point Judge Perry to Section 4.4 of DOJ’s Grand Jury Manual, which tells prosecutors to have potentially biased jurors excuse themselves. But she was barred from doing so by “the front office,” and is now resigning “under protest” to “preserve my continued healthcare benefits, earned over decades of service.”
Judge Perry will hear argument on the sanctions and special counsel motions on October 1.
“You have forced me to choose between remaining silent while my professional reputation is destroyed and prematurely surrendering my cherished career,” Mecklenberg wrote. “I choose the latter.”
She also chooses violence, and we are so here for it.
‘Broadview Six’ prosecutor pens fiery resignation letter saying US attorney pushed for felony charges [Chicago Tribune]
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
The post ‘Broadview Six’ Prosecutor Is Back To Burn Her Boss appeared first on Above the Law.
Sheri Mecklenberg is back, baby! She wants in on the “Broadview 6” case which imploded in May after her gross misconduct before the grand jury was revealed. She is also outta here, dropping an epic resignation letter that is almost certainly a precursor to litigation against her former boss, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros.
It all started out so well! The Trump administration demanded that US Attorneys charge anti-ICE protesters with felonies, and in October, after an ICE agent drove his car into a crowd outside the immigration detention facility in suburban Chicago, Mecklenberg managed to indict six of them for conspiracy to obstruct an official in the discharge of his duties.
But it was not meant to be. Prosecutors spent several months trying to ward off demands to disclose the grand jury transcripts, all the while snorting indignantly that the defendants were “hysterically speculating about perceived misconduct in what was the normal practice in Chicago’s federal court.” The USAO even dismissed the felony charges and dropped the case down to a misdemeanor. In a last ditch effort, they gave Judge April Perry a selectively redacted transcript, allowing her to think the gaps were due to a technical problem.
On May 21, after finally receiving the full record, the judge said she’d “never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.” At the hearing, Boutros announced that he was dropping all charges and launching an investigation of all cases presented by Mecklenberg.
By then, Mecklenberg had been detailed to Senator Dick Durbin’s office, although her colleagues Drew Skiba and William Hogan, who worked the case with her and took over when she left, were still at the USAO.
Boutros tried to place the blame for the debacle solely on Mecklenberg, while simultaneously seeking to block any further investigation of his office. He even went so far as to agree to pay the defendants’ legal bills. But the defendants, who were apparently selected for prosecution because of their roles in local politics, were not mollified. They’ve requested that Judge Perry appoint a special counsel to investigate and potentially prosecute the responsible parties for criminal contempt.
That put Mecklenberg squarely in the frame, and yesterday she moved to intervene in the case “to address the Court, consistent with those positions, on specific aspects of her conduct that further demonstrate her actions were taken with no animus or ill will.” She insists that she kept the “front office” fully informed throughout her three presentations to the grand jury, and that Boutros and his team were aware of what she was doing in real time.
“When notified (through counsel) that she intended to file a motion to intervene, the U.S. Attorney’s Office advised that, as a Department of Justice employee, Ms. Mecklenburg was not permitted to file anything on her behalf and could be disciplined or terminated if she did so,” she added. “Ms. Mecklenburg then notified the U.S. Attorney’s Office that she was retiring, effective on September 24, in part so that she can address these issues on her own behalf.”
Unsurprisingly, the defendants do not object to Mecklenberg’s intervention!
Then this morning, Chicago’s and Tribune each published Mecklenberg’s resignation letter in which she makes it entirely clear that, if she goes down, she’s taking Boutros with her.
Throughout all of this, I remained silent. But now the defense has leveled additional false and inflammatory accusations against me that the Office has not rebutted and apparently has no intention of rebutting. At the same time, you have threatened to terminate me if I attempt to rebut the false allegations and bring additional matters to the Court’s attention. You remind me that I am still a DOJ employee when you want to silence me, but you have not treated me as a DOJ employee throughout this matter, including when, in May, you placed me on leave and cut off my devices and credentials without any notice. Your adverse actions from the beginning have forced me to retain personal counsel to defend conduct undertaken as part of my employment, yet you have refused to indemnify me for the substantial resulting expense. Despite the adverse impact on my finances, you cannot buy my silence by dangling continued leave.
Mecklenburg says that she learned about the hearing that would end the case “after-the-fact from the media;” that he put her on leave while leaving Skiba and Hogan in place; that he cut off her devices and credentials “without any notice;” and that he declined to pay for the lawyers she hired from Akerman to defend work she did on the job.
Perhaps most saliently for the defendants, she says that she wanted to charge them with misdemeanors, but was overruled by Boutros and ordered to seek a felony indictment. (The USOA denies this.)
Mecklenburg hoped to point Judge Perry to Section 4.4 of DOJ’s Grand Jury Manual, which tells prosecutors to have potentially biased jurors excuse themselves. But she was barred from doing so by “the front office,” and is now resigning “under protest” to “preserve my continued healthcare benefits, earned over decades of service.”
Judge Perry will hear argument on the sanctions and special counsel motions on October 1.
“You have forced me to choose between remaining silent while my professional reputation is destroyed and prematurely surrendering my cherished career,” Mecklenberg wrote. “I choose the latter.”
She also chooses violence, and we are so here for it.
‘Broadview Six’ prosecutor pens fiery resignation letter saying US attorney pushed for felony charges [Chicago Tribune]
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
