>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Charges dropped against the broad to 6 and no special prosecutor for ICE agents.

>> This is a reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly, treated.

His aunt, a weaponization.

>> Questions over the legality of President Trump's 1.8 billion dollar anti weaponization fine.

>> The person behind mask is slight.

Like a king to be here.

in real life.

>> And meet a young Chicago woman hoping to someday take her professional wrestling skills to Mexico.

First off tonight, a federal grand jury has indicted another Chicago man related to an operation Midway Blitz.

Incident.

>> Federal prosecutors say 21 year-old Diego Emanuel Reyes allegedly rammed his SUV into the rear of a truck driven by an immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

They say this video so shows Reyes using his car to push the ice agents car forward before speeding off.

The incident happened in the same neighborhood.

And on the same day, a Chicago woman writer Marc Martinez, was shot 5 times by an immigration agent.

Higher fuel prices have led to higher airfares, but that is not stopping the more than 2 million passengers expected to pass through Chicago's airports this holiday weekend.

Memorial Day tends to kick off the summer travel season.

And Chicago Department of Aviation says O'Hare traffic is expected to be up more than 15 and a half percent over last year.

Midway is expected to see a 3% increase.

The city says tomorrow will likely be the busiest day for both airports.

All of this, despite airfares being nearly 21% higher in April than a year earlier.

That's according to the latest Consumer Price Index.

And Chicago's Beach season officially begins tomorrow as Memorial Day weekend.

Again, a shoo-in that unofficial start to summer beaches will be open daily from 06:00AM to 11:00PM with swimming allowed only lifeguards are on duty from 11:00AM to 7 this summer.

City officials have taken extra steps to enforce paid parking new Gates and license plate readers have been installed at several lakefront.

Lots to make sure drivers pay up.

Chicago born rapper Common and local indie rock band Beach Bunny will headline this summer's Taste of Chicago Festival also set to perform our Reggae artist.

Original Coffee R and b legend baby face and Mexican pop star Julia Tiffany.

the Taste is returning to July for the first time in 3 years after being moved to September because of the NASCAR Chicago Street race.

City officials say this year's event will expand from 3 days to 5 and feature.

39 more food vendors than last year with about 38% of vendors making their taste of Chicago debut.

And there's more Chicago tonight coming up.

But first, we want to share details about a special upcoming event.

You're invited to join us for a W T Tw News town hall about police community relations in Chicago.

It's on Tuesday.

May 26th at 06:00PM at Tell YA Hall in Pilsen you can reserve your free tickets at W T Tw dot com slash events.

Tickets are limited to sign up today again W T Tw dot com slash events and we will see there.

A whirlwind day in Chicago area courts are Matt Masterson joins us next to break it all down for us.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexandra and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> One Midway blitz saga ends while another goes on.

Federal prosecutors today dropped all charges against the remaining Broadview 6 defendants separately, a Cook County judge will not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged misconduct by federal immigration agents.

But the door is still open for local law enforcement to collect evidence.

W t Tw News reporter Matt Masterson joins now with more.

Matt, why did feds drop all the charges?

In a broad view, 6 case spread.

It was really a stunning day at the Dirksen Federal Building prosecutors conduct other misconduct before the federal grand jury that indicted these initial 6 broad view.

>> Defendants, that's what led to the dismissal today.

These 6, of course, we're accused with conspiring to surround vehicle in suburban Broadview and impede its progress.

What we learned today was that an initial grand jury that this case was presented to refused to indict prosecutors, then remove some members of that grand jury and present the case a second time to secure indictment against them.

They also one of the prosecutor spoke with a member of the grand jury outside the confines of those proceedings pages pages of transcripts that were supposed to be presented to the judge in this case from that grand proceeding, what went missing, they were not presented to the judges.

They were supposed to be.

None of that, of course, is allowed during the grand jury process.

Defense attorneys in this case, some of whom are former federal prosecutors themselves said they were sick and they had they had never seen any type of behavior like this before.

They said they were shocked.

The call for Shane sanctions against some of these prosecutors to handle this and they want to see these people held accountable for the way that this case played out.

>> Like you said, those are really stunning revelations.

What did the U.S.

Attorney Andrew just have to say?

We trust made a surprise appearance in court.

He was the one who announced this dismissal today.

He said he was upset by this conduct.

He said he's never seen anything like this happening as office before he claimed that he dropped the he ordered the dismissal of the top felony conspiracy count just weeks ago when he learned what happened, he apologized to the court, but he also stood by the charges that his prosecutors were set to go to trial on just next week.

There are still going to go to trial on misdemeanor counts against these defendants starting Tuesday.

Okay.

So moving on to the decision to not appoint a special prosecutor.

What prompted the judge to consider this issue?

There was a petition filed by 400 elected officials.

Attorneys community organizers who demanded a special prosecutor be brought in after states attorney Eileen O'Neill.

Burke has refused.

>> They say to bring any charges in federal ice cases stemming from Operation Midway Blitz.

sure that the petitioner's claim that O'Neill Birkhead abandon her duties to investigate.

But when claim that she doesn't have that ability to investigate it, any cases that comes to her and needs to be started by law enforcement.

Police need to do this and then they bring this investigation to She cannot start an investigation on her own.

And today, Judge Erica Reddick, who was in charge deciding whether or not to appoint a special prosecutor, she agreed Burke.

She said that these cases cannot these investigations.

Canopy started by a prosecutor's office.

They can't run their own police agency.

They need to have these investigations first brought to them before they can considering charges.

Okay.

So to that point, then have law enforcement agencies and other states have they responded to the accusations of misconduct by immigration agents, house that we have seen similar investigations go forth in Minnesota just this week, an ICE agent was charged in a non-fatal shooting.

>> Nothing like that has happened here yet.

But the Illinois State police this month did request assistance in investigating the fatal shooting of so the against Gonzalez by a federal agent last when parks office is supporting that investigation.

But they say they're not in the primary role.

They say they can't.

That's what they can't do.

That can't initiate.

>> The petitioners now say that to go forward with this.

people who say they were victimized by ICE agents during that way, but to go to police officers go to police agencies where they are and make complaints and that those complaints need to be investigated for anything can go forward.

Okay.

Wow.

big day at federal courthouse today.

That Masterson, thanks so much.

Experience.

>> And you can read Matt's full story on our website.

It is all at W T Tw Dot com Slash news.

A vote today on a major immigration package was paused by Senate Republicans over news of President Trump's 1.7, 7, 6 billion dollar IRS settlement fund.

The so-called anti-government weaponization fund was created following a lawsuit to President Trump and 2 of his sons filed against the IRS after their financial information was leaked.

The fund is dedicated to those who have been supposedly wrongs by the Department of Justice and Trump alluded to giving the money to political allies including those who participated in the January 6th insurrection.

But it has experts and Congress members raising eyebrows.

Joining us now are Harold Krantz, professor at Chicago.

Can't College of Law and author of the book Presidential Powers.

And Jordan Gans, Morse associate professor of political science with a focus on corruption and authoritarian institutions at Northwestern University.

Gentleman, welcome.

Thanks for joining us.

So Want to start with you because The New York Times is reporting that this settlement happened just days before a federal judge was set to rule on the legitimacy of the Trump's lawsuit over the IRS.

You break down to that original lawsuit that the Trump smiled.

So the lawsuit was filed because personal information and tax returns which are not supposed to be released were released.

>> Inadvertently by the IRS, the traced it to independent contractor.

So not an employee of the IRS to 40 beat that information to The New York Times.

And Politico illegally.

Indeed, that individual is facing jail time.

I think for 5 years in jail.

Nonetheless, the president and the Suns sued the IRS for this failure to keep his information confidential.

The lawsuit was a long shot.

It had very little to arm because go on because the mistake was not made by the R I arrest was made by this independent contractor and he waited too long to Sew is probably out of time.

The statue limitations had Not so the question is not set up.

Is this settlement?

Bogus?

This is a symptom of a lawsuit that had no leg to stand on or is this really a legitimate settlement of the suit in which case he would be authorized to tap into the department just is judgment fund in order to pay it.

And it was like a 10 billion dollar lawsuit.

Wasn't it also a bit strange.

The president to sue his own government?

>> It is a bit strange and shows the and M a conflict of interests which are at the core of this administration up.

But it can happen.

>> And in this case, it's even become worse.

Of course, as you could see by laying out the information because anti-government weaponization fund a sweet 1.7, 6 billion dollars.

And as 17, 76 was going to 7 absolutely.

And who's going to go for?

It's going to go for his friends who were similarly victimized by weaponize Department of Justice during prior administrations, not his.

And and this.

This money being taken from funds that are typically given to people who do when lawsuits in a court of law against the Justice Department.

But how is it that the president is able to gain control over it and say?

>> And, you know, order, you know, one of his department's one of his agencies to use it for this purpose.

It's it's a violation congressional legislation.

So it's up to Congress to stand up and try to fight back.

Congress says the reserve judgment fund and if you we lawsuit against the government, you can get paid, which is good.

And if you have to show your case, you can get paid.

This isn't a settlement.

This was volunteer with to the action which was probably for to begin with and then use as just an excuse.

It's presents a brazen use of this mechanism to help support signal his allies.

He has their back.

Jordan, does this meet your definition of corruption?

Absolutely.

I think the way political scientists is usually think of corruption is the abuse.

A public officer or materials or resources for private gain or political game and clearly for political gain, given that this is going to be money that's controlled by people who have a strong alliance with Trump it can be used in ways that help him politically.

That alone makes it corruption.

extent of those additional measures that prep shield Trump and his family from additional sorts any sand sort at that live in the violent PACs top.

That would also be personal gain that is going to from in multiple ways.

This looks like corruption how is this fund and how it's being established this entire move?

How is it different from other cases of corruption or alleged corruption that you study?

>> One thing that really strikes me is how openly Trump does everything.

And this seems almost I don't know if this is something that he doesn't actually or if you just doesn't understand you know, in his mind, things he does are are not problematic.

>> But even in places that I look at, including places like Putin's Russia, Decatur, still care about being perceived as corrupt, even have a lot of power.

They don't want to be unpopular and captions unpopular in many, many places.

And so we like Putin to the extent that he's doing various corruption schemes tries to keep them somewhere quiet.

Trump just doesn't right in front of which creates sort of a conundrum conference about Yeah, that's right.

And Chris Oladokun under because, you know, a part of you looking at that goes was so bad.

He just do this out in the open.

But it really is that bad news just doing it right in front of our faces, which is really unusual.

>> Could that could that for him later on?

If that is the case, if this is corruption and it is found to be so.

I would like to say yes, but we've seen Trump defy the laws of political gravity over and over and over again to the point where any sort of guest like that seems like wishful thinking.

>> Given that many, many things that would have sunk any other politician in just about any political system just not hurt Trump, at least not with his base.

Harold, are there any legal safeguards to rein this in?

>> just yesterday question first.

I mean, I think this is corruption.

I think it goes deeper than corruption because if you take this in conjunction with pardons given out to January 6 insurgents, what you see is a message that Trump is sending.

I have your back.

If you do my bidding, even if it's illegal.

If you go out and riot, if you're out attack a policeman, if you go, what his own agenda on through the government in my service, I will pardon you.

I will give you money.

I will compensate So look what happened may happen with the midterms.

That's my fear that the message will be received in that way.

As people will say, hey, this president is giving us a signal to go and be violent.

That's the risk.

>> So it seems like Congress is reacting today, although they're going out of town for the Memorial Day weekend.

But it sounds like there were some concerns from even Republicans about, you know, about passing their homeland security package yet this is happening out in the open, as we've discussed.

Is Congress likely to get involved in pressuring the president or to cancel this fund even during a midterm year?

It might.

You let's hope this is a violation of Congress's appropriations power.

>> This is taking the jump in front and using it for personal purposes violates a whole raft of federal laws.

There's also lawsuit was shot lawsuits.

There's already been one filed.

The problem if the lawsuit is you have to have someone who's been injured by this.

And yet the sort of say that because of the president giving out money to his friends, I will likely be affected poorly because I'm more likely to get beaten I'm more likely to be investigators, something like that.

So that's a difficult a long road to go into court.

The better option in the more direct is what may happen.

Congress to say President Ford too far.

This is not with the judgment funds about.

We don't like what you're doing here and we're going to withhold.

Legislation that you want until you change and cancel what you've done.

Jordan, the Republican Senate, as we mentioned, a positive vote on the immigration enforcement package.

How is this impacting the G O P s?

>> Leverage with Democrats in negotiating.

I think the Democrats are happy to finally see at least some GOP support for reining in Trump.

But again, I said before, we simply have seen Trump operating differently universe.

And we've also just seen a number of primary elections.

Were Trump's power still really, really visible to Republicans?

And if you go it's really clear what he can do to politically harm.

You.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the Republicans are speaking out, but we'll have to see where things really go.

He rolled to officers, as you mentioned, who were defending the Capitol on January 6.

They are suing to block the funds from being given out to those people who participated in the insurrection.

>> Is that a long shot that that you are speaking the water?

that a long They have to show individually to injury under our laws now to go into court get trigger any kind of judicial consideration.

>> And they have to show that because of this fund being given out to Giuliani or whomever that they will more and more likely face some kind of injury in the future.

That's a lot 10.

You ation.

A lot of speculation before between between giving out money to the January 6 protesters are insurgents and the fact that something may happen in the future, it could happen.

And a court could say, you know, it's more likely to happen to cops to happen to somebody else to have this kind of injury and therefore open the courthouse doors to consider it.

But there's a lot of steps to go through before the court can comfortable.

We're taking on this case.

Jordan, you know, as we mentioned, you study authoritarian governments in other you say we're not we're not there yet.

How would you describe Trump's playbook and where we are in that playbook?

>> I think Trump himself certainly exhibits many characteristics of somebody who's an authority leader.

He would like not to be.

>> Bound by constraints.

we know that he openly admires authoritarian leaders in terms, though, of America's system as a whole, we still have have had up to this point at least free and fair elections.

And until that is violated, we still, I think, are in a democratic system.

But one that is under a lot of pressure.

And this is just one more example of that just to name a few things.

And some been mentioned.

But this is just showcasing black with Tommy of that of the Department of Justice.

At this point.

It's also showcasing the breakdown separation of powers.

Us mention terms of the of nation of of Congress's power of appropriation and the purse.

And it's also really raising serious concerns about supporting and encouraging political violence as was just mentioned, OK?

And you mentioned, you know, free and fair elections.

We've got one coming up.

Some some primaries are still happening.

We had some earlier this week and of course, the midterms and the fall so well, we're watching it all, Carol.

Craig Jordan cans, Morris, thanks to both for joining us.

Thank you, Up next, how women are literally fighting norms in Mexican professional wrestling.

>> But first, a look at the weather.

Lou.

Chilly break or free wrestling is woven into the fabric of Mexico's cultural identity.

It's an acrobatic, flamboyant and thrilling choreographed sport that melds athletics in theater to symbolize the ultimate battle between good and evil.

Utah, Doris deliberate wrestlers are challenging the sports much.

culture.

And as Luka Lee Ray has spread across the world, Chicago has become a hub in the United States in partnership with Wt Tw news students from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism went on a reporting trip to Mexico City.

Here's Sidney Myer and Jamie Gary.

>> Julie Gray is moving into the fabric of Mexico's cultural identity.

Acrobat.

Flamboyant, thrilling.

The sports, a choreographed dance of athletics theater that it I mean, in Mexico is called the Cathedral of Jimmy Graham, which makes Mexico City the Vatican.

So then it's no surprise.

The spaces are also totally male dominated.

>> Diluted or challenge >> Arriving in >> Meet do same.

Take it from people for But not way it is.

>> Playing a part in that would be that might not mean that I can't.

They.

I closest.

but from to say Luna started training at 19.

>> After observing a training session goes heavy on a critical stunned that.

But didn't.

I mean book and it's going a of it.

The port is so I like that in person and in that I think like it became a unit.

You got get them women were banned from wrestling in Mexico City from 1954.

To 1986 outside the Capitol.

>> Promoters were penalized for booking professionals like to say Luna stadiums like the iconic arena, Mexico now painted with empowering messages were inaccessible.

But this machismo, culture is still prevalent.

>> Michelle is.

It's time in spot.

If you see this in freshness, you show that you just takes you back the fighting.

If you want to try tell you it getting up, going to find that will just a few minutes.

just get to go and train the guys.

>> The Mexican people have taken literally break global and Chicago's become a hub in the United a Mexican American in the second city did is doesn't just rain with She competes against.

>> Embodying the strength to door back in Mexico.

mean when you wear a mask, it changes who we are.

>> Once you get those couldn't hear, you know, the person who we are behind, he is the with the >> I feel like I'm this ferocious feline from the jungle.

Well, it's going to Proust and attack or Trump.

Anyone in the The person behind math like.

like a king to be here.

in real life.

>> Lady Teague rust grew up chilly rain with her who immigrated to the United States from Mexico seeing other plus size luchadores thrive.

Despite pressure to be small in inspired her to start training herself.

>> I'm a big wrestling other, like little petite girls.

This gives me an advantage.

I do a lot of like.

Power moves.

It's like by slam car close alliance.

My signature move is the >> It made me feel comfortable in who I am.

I'm not just in the rain but outside the ring.

>> With your list.

>> Hopefully reach all medical Mexico's me where led them their >> It represents every every part day of the study of them.

If you no, just under 10, you may just you step of equation, bit of the country.

>> From northwestern middle and W t Tw.

This is Sidney Myer and Jaime Guerra.

>> And you can see much until reporting from Mexico City on our website W T Tw Dot com Slash news back to wrap things up right after this.

>> Reflecting the people perspectives that make can This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Not the >> And that's our show for this Thursday night.

You can stream Chicago tonight on our W T Tw YouTube channel every evening and catch up on any programs you may have missed and join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the week in review.

Now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death for that serves the needs of clients in the