Federal prosecutors have moved to drop their case against a California labor leader who was arrested last year while protesting an immigration raid in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a motion with the court on Monday seeking to have the case against David Huerta dismissed, “pursuant to an agreement” between both parties.

Huerta, the president of a Service Employees International Union affiliate, was arrested and jailed last June as immigration agents descended on an apparel manufacturer in downtown LA during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Prosecutors had accused Huerta of interfering with their operation and illegally blocking their vehicle.

Huerta, in a statement Monday, described it as a case that “never should have been brought.”

“[T]he government is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice,” he said. “There was never a real case, only an attempt to punish and silence me for exercising my constitutional rights.”

Huerta initially faced a felony conspiracy charge that carried up to six years in prison, but prosecutors downgraded that charge to a misdemeanor. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial Aug. 31.

He is one of hundreds of people who’ve been arrested and charged with assaulting or “impeding” federal agents during President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign. An unusually high number of these cases have resulted in dropped charges or acquittals after trial, with juries skeptical that the defendants committed any crimes.

Huerta, who was injured during the episode last June, told HuffPost it was the agents who acted unlawfully that day.

“I was tackled, I was pepper-sprayed, I was detained [while] exercising a First Amendment right,” Huerta told HuffPost in a February interview. “I firmly believe that everything that’s happened since then ― not only to myself but to others ― is with the intention to silence dissent. It’s state repression against people who are exercising their First Amendment rights.”

The Justice Department’s failed cases against protestors have brought withering criticism from attorneys who say the Trump administration has weaponized its prosecutorial powers against political opponents. Huerta’s attorneys, Abbe David Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, said in a statement Monday the case may be going away, but it caused lasting damage.

“This case revealed that the Department of Justice was willing to charge a labor leader with a crime, hold it over him for months, and then walk away from it once the charge couldn’t survive scrutiny,” they said. “That is not how a justice system is supposed to work.”

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