The Prosecutor at the Center of a Botched DOJ Case Was Working For Senate Democrats

Sheri Mecklenburg had been assigned to work for the minority on the Judiciary Committee, but ranking member Dick Durbin said she had been dismissed on Friday.

Protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois.

Protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Nam Y. Huh/AP

The federal prosecutor at the center of a Justice Department scandal in Chicago — where a tainted grand jury indictment has tanked a case against anti-ICE activists — had been reassigned to work for Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats until Friday, but has now been summarily dismissed from that assignment.

Sheri H. Mecklenburg, a prosecutor who presented the case before the grand jury last year, had been in D.C. on a temporary assignment to work with ranking member Dick Durbin’s “criminal justice” team. She previously said publicly that she was working closely with the Illinois Democrat himself.

But after new judicial scrutiny and questions from reporters, Durbin’s office said her DOJ detail to the Senate Judiciary Committee has been cut short.