{"id":497946,"date":"2026-01-07T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497946\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:05:11","slug":"cook-county-board-candidate-suspends-campaign-to-fight-indictment-a-decision-i-needed-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497946\/","title":{"rendered":"Cook County Board candidate suspends campaign to fight indictment: ‘A decision I needed to make’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The phone rang for Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Sharp late last October, while she sat at her desk at work, back when news swirled daily about the Trump administration\u2019s deportation campaign around Chicago.<\/p>\n

The call appeared to be from the federal government. But as chief of staff for Chicago\u2019s 40th Ward alderperson, that didn\u2019t seem unusual. So she picked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey identified themselves as the FBI,\u201d said Sharp, who was also running as a Democrat for Cook County Board, \u201cand informed me that they were asking for me to turn myself in the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

News soon broke<\/a> that Sharp and five others, dubbed the \u201cBroadview Six\u201d, faced a conspiracy indictment tied to protests in Broadview against \u201cOperation Midway Blitz.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t until Monday, two months later, that Sharp announced the suspension of her campaign for the Cook County Board\u2019s 12th District seat to focus on her legal defense in a case criticized as an attack on the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

Sharp, 29, explained her decision in an interview Tuesday with the Chicago Sun-Times. She acknowledged the financial cost of simultaneously running a campaign and mounting a defense in federal court.<\/p>\n

But she also said that her initial phone call from the FBI came as a \u201chuge shock\u201d \u2014 one that she\u2019s still processing. And, she added, \u201cit is hugely stressful to feel that my freedoms are under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be a single person, being up against the Trump administration and the federal government, is hugely stressful and has interrupted my ability to really be able to run a campaign that I\u2019m proud of,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very lucky that I have amazing friends and family members who have been there for me as I\u2019ve been navigating this,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The case against Sharp is among the most high-profile criminal prosecutions, unrelated to immigration, brought in federal court as a result of \u201cOperation Midway Blitz.\u201d Also charged is Kat Abughazaleh, another Democrat running for Illinois\u2019 9th District congressional seat.<\/p>\n

So is Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and Andre Martin.<\/p>\n

Each of them face a prison sentence of up to seven years.<\/p>\n

Four of the six are Democratic politicians, and defense attorneys have said they may file a \u201cselective prosecution motion.\u201d<\/a> So far, <\/b>they\u2019ve asked prosecutors for any \u201cWhite House communications\u201d tied to the case.<\/p>\n

The 11-page indictment against Sharp and her co-defendants alleges that, while an agent drove a vehicle toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Broadview on Sept. 26, the six and others surrounded it. Members of that group allegedly banged on the vehicle, pushed against it, scratched it and even etched the word \u201cPIG\u201d onto it.<\/p>\n

They also allegedly broke a side mirror, a rear windshield wiper and forced the agent \u201cto drive at an extremely slow rate of speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of what happened was caught on video, though defense attorneys say it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story.<\/p>\n

Sharp declined during Tuesday\u2019s interview to discuss the allegations.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros has said that \u201call federal officials must be able to discharge the duties of their office without confronting force, intimidation or threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"__KatVid1.png\"<\/p>\n

This screenshot from a video on YouTube appears to show Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and others trying to slow a federal vehicle\u2019s approach to a holding facility in Broadview.<\/p>\n

Still, federal cases brought against \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d protesters have been viewed with some skepticism. Among at least 31 defendants, charges have already been dropped against 14. No one has been convicted.<\/p>\n

Abughazaleh took the rare step in October of announcing the federal charges on social media and promised her followers regular updates about the case. But Sharp, when asked Tuesday whether she felt the indictment helped her campaign said, \u201cI certainly was told that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut overall \u2014 I mean, as evidenced by me suspending the campaign \u2014 it was not beneficial,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n

She said she was conscious that some might see her as being bullied out of the race by the Trump administration. But she said she wanted to \u201cpush back against that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last couple months, with Midway Blitz, I\u2019ve been really proud to have organized Know Your Rights town halls and get neighbors more engaged,\u201d Sharp said. \u201c\u2026 In suspending my campaign, I\u2019m going to have more availability to recommit to that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her statement Monday night, she added that, \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d And she promised to continue her work as chief of staff for Ald. Andre Vasquez.<\/p>\n

She also said she\u2019d been trying, in the last two months, to balance \u201ctwo hugely stressful things.\u201d <\/b>That includes her campaign \u201cwhere every moment that you\u2019re not spending knocking on doors and trying to raise funds for the campaign feels like you\u2019re not doing enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

She insisted she could only speak about her own experience \u2014 acknowledging it\u2019s \u201conly a small piece of what other families are having to navigate right now in Chicago, and across the country\u201d while being targeted by immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

But going into the holiday season, when family is the top priority, Sharp said, \u201cit just resonated a bit more that this is a decision I needed to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put myself, my loved ones and my family first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The phone rang for Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Sharp late last October, while she sat at her desk at work,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":497947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-497946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}