Chicago federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against two defendants accused of participating in a Covid testing scam after they alleged misconduct by a prosecutor who’s also accused of improprieties in a now-infamous case against protesters.
The motion to dismiss filed late Thursday could avert an evidentiary hearing into the fraud defendants’ misconduct claims, which was slated for next week.
If Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman grants the motion to dismiss, the case will be the latest casualty of an ongoing credibility crisis triggered by the revelation of grand jury improprieties in a controversial case against ICE protesters.
Defendants Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry said last month they’d learned the same prosecutor accused of wrongdoing in the protester case engaged in “flagrant and pervasive” misconduct before the grand jury that indicted them in the fraud case.
The defendants’ motion doesn’t name the prosecutor, but Assistant US Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg handled both the protest case and the testing scheme case. Grand jury transcripts released publicly this week show she used her personal credibility to vouch for the strength of the protester case and abruptly excused a grand juror who pushed back on prosecutors.
Two other defendants are charged in the Covid testing scheme. One is in Serbia and hasn’t waived extradition, putting him on “a different track” than the others, Coleman said in court this week. Another is in discussions to work out a plea, his attorney has said.
Khan is represented by Blegen & Associates and Leinenweber, Daffada, & Sansonetti. Chaudhry is represented by Clark Hill PLC.
The case is United States v. Ahmed, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cr-00321, government’s motion to dismiss 6/11/26.
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