A special federal grand jury has indicted Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh alongside other protesters who allegedly blocked vehicles outside of a federal immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois.
Abughazaleh was charged alongside five other people, including two other political candidates. She faces one count of conspiracy along with one charge alleging that she “forcibly impeded, intimidated, and interfered” with an officer.
The indictment alleges that the group "conspired with one another and others, known and unknown, to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat, Agent A, a United States law enforcement officer, from discharging the duties of his office, and to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, and while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, and to injure his property so as to interrupt, hinder, and impede him in the discharge of his official duties."
The defendants were not arrested but were notified of the indictment and will self-surrender next Wednesday, according to a court filing.
"I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice. This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win,” Abughazaleh wrote in a social media post. Abughazaleh, a social media star and former journalist, is running for Congress in Illinois' 9th Congressional District, currently held by retiring Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
She added that "Chicago doesn’t back down from bullies in masks who teargas our neighborhoods, this administration is resorting to weaponizing the federal legal system to scare us into silence."
Clashes between protesters and immigration officials have resulted in arrests and First Amendment challenges in federal court.
A federal judge earlier this month issued a temporary restraining order against law enforcement officials to curb the use of tactics like shooting pepper balls or throwing tear gas canisters into a crowd, particularly without warning.




 



