Federal Judge April Perry is considering whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate potential misconduct by the US Attorney's office.

At a hearing Thursday, Perry told prosecutors she would be issuing a list of evidence that U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros and his team must turn over that could shed more light on how prosecutors mishandled the Broadview Six case, to the point they had to drop all charges.

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Specifically, Perry seemed intent on finding out whether Boutros and his team were acting on orders from outside the office, referring to the Trump Department of Justice, and whether those orders were to carry out a politically motivated prosecution.

The 'Broadview Six' defendants were arrested in October 2025 after a skirmish with federal agents outside the Broadview Ice facility. They initially faced felony charges of conspiring to impede a federal agent, but prosecutors had difficulty convincing grand jurors to bring charges, with one famously saying he thought the case was a  crock of shit. 

 My sole focus at this point is on the lack of candor, concealment of material facts, or other misconduct that occurred,  Perry told attorneys at Thursday's hearing.  And whether or not that misconducted constituted a crime. 

It's the latest escalation in scrutiny on Boutros and a US Attorney's Office that has now dropped several cases tied to a botched grand jury process in the Broadview Six case.

 They're the chief law enforcement agent in this district,  said Broadview Six defense attorney Chris Parente, who has led the charge to uncover misconduct in the case.  So if they're not following the rules, how could they enforce the rules on anybody? 

In previous hearings, Boutros admitted to the mistakes and claimed to have taken action as soon as he learned of them. He has put the lion's share of the blame on former prosecutor Sheri Mecklenberg, who admitted to some misconduct in her handling of the grand jury. But Mecklenberg says she was taking her orders from the  Top of the office,  and kept them informed eve

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