CHICAGO — A federal judge on Thursday set a May trial date in the politically charged “Broadview Six” case accusing a group of Democrats and other protesters of conspiring to impede immigration agents at the ICE facility that became a lightning rod for opponents of Operation Midway Blitz.

During a brief status hearing, U.S. District Judge April Perry set jury selection for May 26 — the day after Memorial Day — and said she’d block off about a week for testimony and arguments.

If the trial date holds, it will come well after the March 17 Democratic primary in Illinois, where one of the defendants, Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, is running for the 9th Congressional District seat.

Judge Perry agreed with parties from both sides that a questionnaire should be sent out to potential jurors beforehand, given all the sensitive issues surrounding the allegations and immigration policy more broadly.

“It would be kind of nice to have a prescreened pool coming in that Tuesday,” Perry said. She said it would also be helpful to find out how jury selection was handled for the recent murder-for-hire trial of Juan Espinoza Martinez, who was acquitted on charges of putting a hit on Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.

“The issues would be similar (to that case) in terms of finding the right jurors,” Perry said.

Also Thursday, the parties finally reached an agreement on a protective order over the evidence produced in discovery that will allow most of it to be made public by the defense.

Prosecutors had raised issues over the personal identifying information of law enforcement being publicly released, as well as the potential tainting of the jury pool should videos and other evidence be blasted out in the media ahead of the trial.

“I would like to try the case in the courtroom, and not in the media,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg told the judge last week.

Defense attorneys, meanwhile, argued that given recent events, including the shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, it was relevant to the public how federal law enforcement officers are behaving and interacting with the public.

Perry said Thursday that members of the jury pool will likely already have very strong opinions about the issues in the case, regardless of what evidence makes it into the public realm ahead of time. She also noted attorneys from both sides “are already on notice” that they cannot make efforts to taint the jury pool.

“I’m not worried about tainting the jury pool any more than they might already be tainted,” the judge said.

Among the evidence being turned over to the defense: body-worn camera footage from federal agents and Broadview police at the scene on the days surrounding the incident, as well as law enforcement reports and interviews from afterward.

The Broadview Six indictment is the last remaining high-profile criminal case stemming from last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz, and one that has drawn national attention.

Among those charged are four Democrats: Abughazaleh, 26, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 29; 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbit, 62; and Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, 38.

Also charged were Andre Martin, 27, originally of Providence, Rhode Island, who is Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager, and Joselyn Walsh, 31, a garden store worker and singer who has no personal connection to the other defendants.

All six have pleaded not guilty to an indictment alleging they conspired to block a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from entering ICE’s processing facility in west suburban Broadview on Sept. 26, during one of a string of protests that occurred outside the two-story building during Operation Midway Blitz.

According to the 11-page indictment, the group surrounded an ICE vehicle outside the Broadview facility during a Sept. 26 protest and “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s side and back windows, hood and doors before they “crowded together in the front and side of the Government Vehicle and pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.”

Prosecutors allege the protesters scratched the vehicle’s body, broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper, and etched the word “PIG” into the paint.

The indictment includes the conspiracy count, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, as well as several other counts of impeding a federal officer, each punishable by up to one year in federal prison.

The charges have been met by accusations that the Department of Justice under Republican President Donald Trump was prosecuting free speech and trying to punish political opponents.

Abughazaleh’s attorney, Josh Herman, has blasted the indictment as a politically motivated farce that attempts to turn “a protest into a criminal conspiracy.”

Defense attorneys are expected to file motions in advance of the trial seeking to get the conspiracy charge thrown out.

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