Douglas DePodesta, the former head of the FBI in Chicago, has sued the US Department of Justice (DoJ). He accuses the Trump administration of pressuring him to investigate the president's political opponents. The Guardian reported that the lawsuit was filed in federal court on Monday.
DePodesta led the FBI's Chicago office as special agent in charge from 2024 until July 2026. He says he was made a "scapegoat" after a major case against anti-ICE protesters collapsed. He also says he was unlawfully forced out. The suit names FBI director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Andrew Boutros, the US attorney who leads the DoJ's Chicago office. It alleges defamation and violations of due process and free speech rights.
The case centres on the Broadview Six. These six activists protested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview in September 2025. They were charged with conspiracy to impede an ICE officer. A grand jury first rejected the charges, an outcome The Guardian described as extremely rare. Prosecutors went back to the grand jury anyway. After a series of missteps, they were forced to drop the case.
According to the complaint, Boutros repeatedly pushed DePodesta to open "politically motivated" investigations during Operation Midway Blitz, the ICE crackdown on Chicago. The suit says Boutros sent emails demanding probes into people who opposed the Trump administration. On one occasion, it says, he was "openly hostile" when the FBI refused to write an affidavit claiming a protester had assaulted an officer. The complaint says the FBI's review of video showed only incidental touching when an immigration agent tackled the protester.
A judge later found that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct before the grand jury. Boutros told the court he was "completely unaware" of the problems. The suit calls that statement "intentionally false". It also says DePodesta attended two meetings where Boutros discussed the case with DoJ officials, one of them with Patel and Blanche. This contradicts claims from Boutros's office that he had not talked to DoJ headquarters about the case. The suit further suggests the US attorney's office faced pressure to charge Kat Abughazaleh, an activist who was then running for Congress.
DePodesta says Boutros falsely accused him of working with his sister-in-law, defence lawyer Nancy DePodesta, to sink the case. She represented one of the defendants. DePodesta, who joined the FBI in 2002, resigned in July. At the time, the FBI posted on X that anyone not on board with "THIS FBI" under Trump was "free to leave". The lawsuit calls that post a defamatory explanation of his removal.
The suit also says only around 6% of Boutros's cases against anti-ICE protesters during the operation ended in a finding of guilt. DePodesta told the Chicago Sun-Times that the American people need to know what is happening in their government. Spokespeople for the DoJ, Boutros and the FBI did not respond to inquiries, The Guardian reported.