U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is no stranger to losing grand jury cases, but now that federal agents have moved into Chicago, prosecutors there are being blocked from prosecutions, too.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that a federal grand jury has turned down another case connected to the so-called "Midway Blitz."
The first time it happened in November, a magistrate judge said that until recently, he'd only ever heard of a grand jury rejecting a prosecution once in the "early part of this century." Now it's happened three times in the past few months.
Nathan Griffin, who is a manager of the Lake View comedy club, the Laugh Factory, was accused of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was involved in the operation. He was accused of trying to shut a car door when the agent was getting out of the car.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Snell confirmed his loss, but blamed it on U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling, saying that she urged them to vote "no bill." During the Wednesday hearing, she dismissed the charges against Griffin "without prejudice." It means that prosecutors could continue to go after the man, but Snell said he was backing down.
While grand juries have cleared three people, at least 13 defendants have had charges against them dropped that are connected to the "Operation Midway Blitz" efforts.
Thus far, prosecutors have not secured a single conviction of individuals arrested for charges connected to "Midway Blitz," the report said.
Read the full report here.
