Remember the newspaper stories about our troubled U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Andrew Boutros, who under political pressure from the Justice Department, and maybe the White House, placed his thumbs on the scales of justice to get a phony baloney indictment against the Broadview 6, including Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw, over a protest at the Broadview ICE facility last year?
You’ll also remember the case fell apart and Boutros was forced to drop the indictment when it turned out his Assistant U.S. Attorney (and maybe Boutros himself?) had acted improperly to get the indictments.
The Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office is back in the news this week with a story involving Loretto Hospital.
This story stretches from the Austin neighborhood to Texas and even Dubai.
See, during COVID, senior management at Loretto, who are alleged by the U.S. Attorney to be a group of scammers and tricksters, supposedly got reimbursed for COVID testing that never happened. Up to $700 million worth of reimbursements.
Loretto CFO and COO Anosh Ahmed is also accused of embezzling $15 million from Loretto.
And not long after, according to The Wall Street Journal, Ahmed donated $190,000 to the ethically-challenged Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, including a $25,000 contribution made just days after Ahmed was federally indicted in July 2024.
And why?
In the past, Paxton has faced fraud charges, bribery allegations and even impeachment by a Republican-controlled Texas state legislature. And Paxton is a Trump favorite, and the President has traveled to Texas multiple times recently to stump for Paxton.
And Ahmed, while on the lam in Dubai, even partied with Paxton on New Year’s Eve according to the Wall Street Journal, at the same time he was a fugitive from U.S. justice. Ahmed recently returned to the U.S. to face the criminal charges in Chicago. He is represented by former Chicago U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, who also represented Rupert Murdoch and Fox News in the $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over false reporting about the 2020 election.
Boutros caved under the political pressure from Justice to indict the Broadview 6. Will President Trump now pull the rug out from Boutros’ upcoming trial against Ahmed by granting a Presidential Pardon? Stranger things have happened lately.
So stay tuned.
Jack Crowe is a semi-regular columnist for Wednesday Journal.
