CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors said in a court filing Monday that conspiracy charges in the “Broadview Six” case against immigration protesters were not politically motivated and that “reckless” requests by the defense for nonexistent White House communications about the case are “the product of fevered paranoia and delusional speculation.”

The 21-page motion from the U.S. attorney’s office comes as attorneys for the four remaining defendants in the politically charged case are seeking to get the indictment dismissed for vindictive prosecution and other grounds.

Earlier this month, the defense asked the judge to order prosecutors to turn over emails and other communications that could show White House influence on the case, which charged a group of Democrats and other immigration protesters with impeding a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and damaging his vehicle during a Sept. 26 protest outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview.

In their response, Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Hogan, Matthew Skiba and Andres Almandarez blasted the defense’s accusations of undue influence as a baseless attempt to convince the court —and the public— “that the U.S. attorney’s office “purposefully and consciously engaged in a conspiracy to violate the defendants’ constitutional rights.”

Prosecutors wrote the defense is not entitled to any discovery on the issue “because no evidence exists to support their fatuous allegations” about influence from top Trump administration officials.

“The decisions about who and what to charge were made by the USAO prosecutors and their supervisors based solely on positive identifications of the defendants and evaluations of their individual criminal conduct,” the prosecution motion stated. “Considerations such as defendants’ political affiliations, activities, views, or positions were not considered in any way as part of the investigation or charging decisions.”

Prosecutors said the six who were originally charged — including two Democratic elected officials and two candidates for office — were easily identifiable on video of the incident and not singled out because of any party affiliation.

Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, the motion stated, wore jacket with his name on it identifying him as a trustee and later “personally announced to the world” at a press conference that he was at the scene.

Likewise, then-Democratic Congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh broadcast her participation in the incident on social media, including one post that included a still-shot from a video showing her at the scene and claiming the ICE agent “tried to run dozens of protesters over with an SUV,” the motion alleged.

According to the motion, the FBI positively identified other individuals who were at the scene that day who were not charged, including a sitting Chicago alderman “who has called for the abolition of ICE,” a nationally known attorney and a “quasi-public figure” well-known for protesting at the Broadview facility.

The decision to not charge certain people was made by the U.S. attorney’s office “based on the strength of the evidence, including an evaluation of the seriousness of each individual’s criminal conduct,” the motion stated.

U.S. District Judge April Perry is scheduled to hold a status hearing in the case on April 7. A jury trial is scheduled to begin May 26.

The “Broadview Six” indictment is the last high-profile federal criminal case to stem from Operation Midway Blitz and has been a particularly thorny one for the U.S. attorney’s office, which as so far failed to secure a single conviction against protesters and others accused of assaulting or threatening agents.

Earier this month, Perry granted a request from the U.S. attorney’s office to dismiss charges against Catherine Sharp, a onetime candidate for Cook County Board, and Joselyn Walsh, a part-time garden store worker and singer.

In addition to Straw and Abughazaleh, the remaining defendants are Andre Martin, who served as Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager, and 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt.

According to the 11-page indictment, the group surrounded an ICE vehicle outside the Broadview facility during a Sept. 26 protest and “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s side and back windows, hood and doors before they “crowded together in the front and side of the Government Vehicle and pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.”

Prosecutors allege the protesters scratched the vehicle’s body, broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper, and etched the word “PIG” into the paint — though none of those charged in the indictment is accused of specifically causing that damage.

The indictment includes the conspiracy count, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, as well as several other counts of forcibly impeding a federal officer, each punishable by up to one year in federal prison.

In addition to alleging vindictive prosecution, defense attorneys are seeking to dismiss the main conspiracy charge, saying it criminalizes First Amendment rights to speech and assembly and creates a “chilling” effect on the public.

That motion argued the indictment elevates what are essentially misdemeanor property damage allegations into a felony criminal conspiracy, casting a chill on “a broad and diverse social movement engaging in constitutionally protected protest activities.”

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