I wanted to zero in on something that was mentioned mostly in passing in the latest set of filings from the former Broadview Six defendants. The DOJ, through the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office, told the defense on June 5 that they would not contest the defendants petition that Judge April Perry rule that the government must reimburse the defendants’ legal expenses. (David mentioned this yesterday in Morning Memo.) It’s true that this agreement in principle leaves undetermined an exact dollar amount that the defendants would be reimbursed. But it’s difficult to overstate how rare it is for the government ever to agree to reimburse defendants’ legal fees or how unheard of it for defendants to succeed in these requests, even though there is a law — the 1977 Hyde Amendment — that provides for it.
The conclusion here is clear: it seems likely that something really, really bad went on here that goes far beyond what was contained in the already released grand jury transcripts. What the government is doing here is trying to cut off the defense’s argument for discovery. They need to know more facts to convince the judge to order the government to pay the fees. This is what the government has done at every point at which the judge has given them the choice between saying what they did and facing a sanction or repercussion of some sort. It certainly sounds like the defense elected not to take the government up on its offer. Otherwise we wouldn’t still be doing filings. This would be over. That’s good. We need to know everything that happened because it seems likely that it goes far beyond this single case.
