DOJ's felony assault cases against ICE protesters mostly collapsed in court, records show

An Associated Press analysis of federal court records has found that the Justice Department secured almost no felony convictions in the marquee prosecutions it brought against protesters accused of assaulting federal officers during last year's immigration enforcement operations, a record far below the norm for federal assault cases and one that has drawn scrutiny from judges, defense attorneys and former prosecutors alike.

Of 102 people charged with felony assault on a federal officer in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. following protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the summer and fall of 2025, 41 percent had their charges dismissed outright and another 34 percent were allowed to plead down to misdemeanors. Only ten defendants pleaded guilty to the felony as charged, and nine were sentenced to prison. Of the roughly dozen cases that went to trial, mostly in Los Angeles, every one ended in an acquittal, a mistrial or a dismissal before a verdict.

The numbers behind the crackdown

The gap between the government's initial charging decisions and their ultimate outcomes is stark. Federal prosecutors nationally won convictions in more than 80 percent of assault cases in 2024, according to Justice Department data cited in the analysis. In the four cities examined, less than half of all protesters charged with assaulting a federal officer, whether by felony or misdemeanor, were ultimately convicted of anything.

Chicago produced the starkest gap: of 19 felony assault cases brought there, all but one were dismissed. Federal charges against Michael Rabbitt, a 45th Ward Democratic committeeman, and five co-defendants, arrested outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, in late September 2025 and known as the "Broadview Six," were dropped entirely in May after defense attorneys obtained transcripts of the grand jury proceedings. U.S. District Judge April Perry, reviewing the unredacted record, found prosecutors had improperly communicated with grand jurors outside formal proceedings and removed panelists skeptical of the case, and she is now weighing whether to refer the matter for sanctions. "This case was bigger than us," Rabbitt said after the dismissal. "I'm proud that we won this case, not just for us, but for protesters across the country."

"This case was bigger than us. I'm proud that we won this case, not just for us, but for protesters across the country."

Cases that fell apart at trial

In Portland, Oriana Korol, a member of a marching band that had gathered outside the city's ICE facility, was photographed playing clarinet before a scuffle broke out between officers and demonstrators in October 2025. She was charged with felony assault after kicking toward a Federal Protective Service officer; the case ended in a mistrial, and prosecutors ultimately let her plead guilty to a misdemeanor. She was sentenced on September 1 to time served and a year of supervised release.

In Ventura County, California, prosecutors accused Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, of picking up a tear-gas canister that federal agents had deployed during a raid on a licensed cannabis farm and throwing it back toward them. A jury acquitted him after a three-day trial, deliberating for roughly two hours; video evidence showed the canister landing well behind the agents. "They're trying to get a chilling effect out of these charges," Caravello said afterward.

Origins in a summer of enforcement and protest

The prosecutions grew out of an aggressive expansion of immigration enforcement that began in mid-2025, as the Trump administration surged ICE and Border Patrol agents into Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and Washington and, in several instances, deployed National Guard troops to back them up. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi warned that people who interfered with federal agents would face "severe consequences," and U.S. attorneys in the affected districts moved quickly to bring felony charges, which can carry sentences of up to 20 years.

In Los Angeles, Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced charges against ten defendants in three separate complaints, with the office saying it was responding to a "wave of violence against law enforcement officers who were doing their jobs" after protests turned confrontational during a raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo. In Chicago, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois obtained a grand jury indictment charging the Broadview protesters with impeding a federal agent engaged in immigration enforcement operations, a case that later collapsed amid the grand jury findings.

Prosecutors, defense lawyers and legal scholars react

A Justice Department spokesperson defended the overall approach, telling the Associated Press that "federal prosecutors are right to prioritize cases against people accused of assaulting federal officers" and that "each case is based on the facts," adding that when mitigating evidence emerges, "prosecutors must also act appropriately to inform the court, and in some cases downgrade or drop charges." The Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office said it had voluntarily dismissed some charges after further investigation.

Not every case ended favorably for defendants. Prosecutors did win convictions in several incidents involving clearer allegations of violence, including a five-year sentence over a Molotov cocktail thrown at a hotel outside Los Angeles, prison terms of more than three years for setting fire to a California Highway Patrol vehicle, and lengthy sentences for defendants involved in a Texas detention-center protest in which an officer was shot in the neck.

Still, legal scholars said the overall pattern raised questions about how the cases were built in the first place. Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Washington School of Law, said the run of dismissals and acquittals raises the question of "whether or not these charges should have ever been brought in the first place." Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School, said the volume of felony charges pleaded down to misdemeanors can itself be telling. "When prosecutors bring charges ethically, they should be prepared to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt," she said, adding that widespread downgrades often signal overcharging at the outset.

• 102 felony assault cases charged across Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and Washington, D.C.
• 41% dismissed; 34% pleaded down to misdemeanors; 10 guilty pleas to the felony; 9 people imprisoned
• All roughly dozen cases that reached trial ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal
• Chicago: 19 felony cases charged, 18 dismissed

What comes next

Judge Perry has not yet ruled on whether to seek sanctions or appoint an outside counsel to examine the conduct of the Chicago prosecutors, a decision that could shape how aggressively the department pursues similar cases as enforcement operations continue in other cities. Several of the milder misdemeanor cases from last year's protests are still moving through the courts, and defense attorneys involved in the dismissed prosecutions say they expect the record of failed felony charges to become a point of leverage in plea negotiations for defendants still facing trial. The Justice Department has given no indication it intends to change its charging practices for future protests connected to immigration enforcement.