The former head of the FBI's Chicago field office is suing the Justice Department, the FBI and some of the government's most senior law enforcement officials, claiming he was forced out of his job after a botched prosecution of six protesters collapsed in court. Douglas DePodesta says he was ousted this past summer because U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros tried to pin the failure on him instead of taking responsibility himself.
DePodesta's lawsuit, filed Monday, names the FBI, the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Boutros, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The suit alleges that Boutros' complaints to superiors in Washington ultimately led to DePodesta's ouster, and it seeks his reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages and attorneys' fees. DePodesta, who spent 24 years with the bureau, didn't mince words about how his departure felt. “I was forced to leave my job,” he said. “I was ordered to leave my job.”
According to the lawsuit, as reported by the Connecticut Post, DePodesta said he saw his dismissal coming and that superiors told him Patel wanted him fired. He says he stepped down against his will this past summer after holding the Chicago field office's top job for nearly two years, a timeline confirmed by The New York Times, which reported he abruptly resigned in July.
How the Broadview Six Case Fell Apart
The case at the center of the dispute grew out of a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview in September 2025. Federal prosecutors ultimately charged six people with conspiring to impede a federal agent, a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, per the Sun-Times account. A grand jury had reportedly refused to indict the six protesters twice before charges were brought, and prosecutors went on to drop or dismiss many of the charges filed against protesters more broadly during the broader immigration enforcement push known as Operation Midway Blitz, which saw around 30 people charged.
The Broadview Six prosecution collapsed entirely on May 21 after U.S. District Judge April Perry found what the Sun-Times described as alleged prosecutorial misconduct buried in grand jury transcripts. Boutros then dropped all charges against the six defendants. Former defendants have since asked Perry to appoint a special counsel to investigate the alleged misconduct, and the judge ordered further fact-finding into communications between Boutros' office and Justice Department leadership.
Lawsuit's Central Allegations
DePodesta's lawsuit alleges that the Justice Department pressured Boutros to charge protesters with felonies and that Boutros pressed for FBI investigations of people opposed to the Trump administration, instructing prosecutors to move cases forward despite their own misgivings about whether probable cause existed, according to WTTW News. The suit also claims Boutros pushed attorneys to charge before fully investigating the objective evidence and sought felony charges even when line attorneys favored misdemeanors or no charges at all.
Perhaps the most personal allegation in the complaint involves DePodesta's own family. The lawsuit claims Boutros told Justice Department leadership that DePodesta had “conspired to destroy” the Broadview Six case, according to the Times, and that he had done so together with his sister-in-law, Nancy DePodesta, a defense attorney who represents former Broadview Six defendant Michael Rabbitt. DePodesta denied those accusations to FBI superiors, who the lawsuit says ultimately conceded he was being forced out because of political pressure created by Boutros.
Nancy DePodesta has defended her brother-in-law publicly, saying he took his oath and ethical responsibilities seriously and that he was forced out over what she called apparently false rumors spread by Boutros. Her comments echo a pattern described in earlier reporting: a prosecutor involved in the Broadview Six case resigned in September after accusing Boutros of scapegoating and publicly vilifying her.
Wider Fallout at the US Attorney's Office
DePodesta's departure fits into a broader pattern the Times has documented inside the Chicago U.S. attorney's office, where a wave of veteran prosecutors has quit over what some believed was pressure to charge certain cases. Boutros, who serves as the top federal prosecutor in Illinois, has denied knowing about the alleged grand jury misconduct until shortly before he dismissed the case, telling WTTW his office adopted policy reforms afterward.
A spokesperson for Boutros' office declined to comment on the lawsuit, per WTTW's reporting, while the FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department had previously announced the original indictment jointly with Boutros and DePodesta, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. With Perry still weighing further fact-finding into communications between prosecutors and Washington, the dispute over who bears responsibility for the collapsed case is far from settled.
