The prosecutor tasked with overseeing the Trump administration’s failed prosecutions of six anti-ICE protesters resigned this week and accused the U.S. attorney in Chicago of interfering in the case and blaming her for its collapse, according to reports.
In a three-page letter obtained by the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets, Sheri Mecklenburg said she was “retiring under protest” after U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois “personally directed” the pursuit of felony charges in the “Broadview Six” case, in which a half-dozen protesters were prosecuted for protesting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill. All charges were dropped against the protesters earlier this year after federal prosecutors admitted to errors in the case.
Mecklenburg said in the letter that Boutros pursued felony charges “over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.”
The strongly-worded letter is the latest controversy for Boutros, a Trump appointee. He attracted criticism for his handling of the Broadview case, which began with the arrests of the half-dozen protesters — including then-congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh — in September 2025. Prosecutors were accused of improperly redacting grand jury transcripts and dismissing jurors who disagreed with the government’s case.
The federal judge presiding over the case upbraided Boutros in court, telling him, “I do believe deeply in the presumption of regularity and that most government attorneys are doing the best they can to do the right thing. That trust has been broken.”
Mecklenburg’s letter, which is dated Thursday and was first reported on Friday, is titled “my forced retirement.” It alleges that Boutros is trying to blame the failed “Broadview Six” prosecution on her.
“You sent an office-wide email laying responsibility at my feet for a felony prosecution that you personally directed over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges,” she wrote. “You then publicly announced an investigation of my conduct spanning twenty years.”
Mecklenburg’s retirement was first made public in a court filing from her attorneys on Thursday, in which they said that “to the extent that Ms. Mecklenburg made mistakes [in the case]…she owns them,” including interacting with two of the grand jurors outside the grand jury room. Mecklenburg’s attorneys said those discussions were not relevant to the case and that she immediately reported them to superiors.
The filing also notes that Mecklenburg withdrew from the case in February, when she left the post in Chicago for one in Washington, D.C. “From that point forward,” it states, “she was no longer assigned to this matter, received no electronic notifications, and was neither notified nor otherwise involved in the later redaction of any grand jury transcripts or hearings the Court held after her departure.”
The Thursday filing from Mecklenburg came less than a week before a hearing is scheduled on multiple motions by the former defendants, including to sanction prosecutors and hold them in criminal contempt. Mecklenburg filed a motion to intervene in the case to defend herself from allegations of prosecutorial misconduct — a move that the U.S. Attorney’s Office allegedly prohibited under the threat of termination, according to the filing.
Mecklenburg wrote in her letter to Boutros that her departure is not voluntary and that she was leaving to preserve her healthcare benefits, which she would lose if she was fired. She said she had been placed on leave since May, and was given no written explanation and “no meaningful opportunity to respond before being publicly condemned by you.”
“You have forced me to choose between remaining silent while my professional reputation is destroyed and prematurely surrendering my cherished career,” she continued. “I choose the latter.”
In a statement to MS NOW, a spokesperson for the Justice Department rejected Mecklenburg’s claim that she had been pushed to charge the protesters with felonies after arguing for misdemeanor charges, saying she identified the felony as “the strongest charge” in writing.
Mecklenburg’s attorney declined to comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago did not immediately respond to requests for comment from MS NOW on Friday.
Lisa Rubin contributed to this report.
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