One day after a federal judge unsealed grand jury transcripts in the high profile ‘Broadview Six’ protester case, Evanston Mayor and Democratic congressional nominee Daniel Biss wrote in an essay that he viewed the fallout of the case as the government’s attempt to “rig a grand jury” and “criminalize dissent” backfiring.

“They tried to make examples out of people for the crime of protesting,” Biss wrote in a Substack essay posted Wednesday evening. “And it backfired. The case fell apart. The misconduct got exposed. Elected leaders are now demanding resignations.”

While the case itself against six protesters completed unravel last month, with the U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros dismissing all remaining charges after admitting to allegations of misconduct by federal prosecutors during the grand jury proceedings, the aftermath is continuing to rage.

This week, a federal judge in a COVID fraud case set a June 17 evidentiary hearing that could force prosecutors to testify about alleged prosecutorial misconduct, which could force Boutros and assistant attorneys to testify under oath about grand jury proceedings in the Chicago prosecutor’s office.

On Tuesday, Judge April M. Perry unsealed transcripts of the October grand jury proceedings that led to an indictment of six protesters, including Kat Abughazaleh, who unsuccessfully ran to represent Evanston and the 9th Congressional District in Congress.

The transcripts revealed a testy exchange between at least one juror and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg on Oct. 16, with a juror asking Mecklenburg why she had returned to the grand jury with the same case as she did a week prior, saying, “I heard this case like last week and I thought it was a crock of sh– then and I still think it is.”

Mecklenburg replied that she “kind of had that impression from last week,” and said if the juror couldn’t be impartial, “then excuse yourself.”

The exchange occurred one week prior to Boutros himself going to the grand jury and introducing himself, while asking jurors to raise their hands if they couldn’t remain impartial, specifically related to immigration cases, according to the transcripts. 

“The first time prosecutors presented [the] evidence, a grand jury refused to indict the protesters,” Biss wrote in his essay. “So what did the government do? When the lead prosecutor presented the case a second time, she excused grand jurors who disagreed with the government’s case,” referring to the juror mentioned above.

“When a prosecutor keeps re-running a case until they get the answer they want – kicking out the citizens who say no until only ‘yes’ votes remain – that’s not justice,” Biss wrote. “It is exactly the kind of thing that happens in authoritarian countries.”

Biss called on Boutros to resign last month, later joined by several other elected officials, including Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, Delia Ramirez and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a former assistant U.S. attorney herself.