* You’ve probably seen this story already…
More than 100 former federal prosecutors who served in northern Illinois delivered an extraordinary rebuke of Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros on Monday, concluding there’s been a “failure of leadership” in an office with “a renowned history of excellence pursuing justice.”
The 111 signatories include individuals identifying as Democrats, Republicans and independents — all now acting as private citizens. They pointed to an exodus of leadership from Boutros’ office, grand jury irregularities, an unusual number of collapsed cases and a breach of trust with judges.
As background, former assistant federal prosecutors who are now in private defense practice have quietly complained for years that the Northern District of Illinois hasn’t charged enough people with crimes. That’s just bad for business. More indictments and charges means more clients; and that means more money.
It is the way the system is designed to work. You put in your time as a prosecutor and then switch sides and rake it in. People in the system get upset when things don’t work out like they’re supposed to. North Shore houses and Land Rovers ain’t free, after all.
* Addressing those gripes was at the very heart of Boutros’ response this week. The ethical complaints raised by the 111 former feds weren’t even mentioned…
In my first year as U.S. Attorney, and despite DOGE downsizing, early retirements, a hiring freeze, and the largest enforcement surge the likes of which had never been seen before in the history of the Northern District of Illinois, my Office brought considerably more indictments in 2025 in all categories compared to 2024. For example, 38% more defendants charged over the previous regime (571 versus 414), 122% more federal firearm indictments under ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center (51 versus 23) and 45% more child exploitation cases (29 versus 20). In 2026, we are surging even more in our impact, velocity, and productivity. Our overall indictments are up 61% for January through May 2026 versus the same time in 2024 (203 versus 126). For our 2026 CGIC gun charges, if we continue at the same pace we’ve maintained for the first five months of the year, we will have achieved a more than 450% increase in CGIC gun charges for 2026 compared to 2024 (104 versus 23). All that’s on top of charging nearly $2 billion in healthcare fraud cases in my roughly first 120 days of service, while also standing up the Office’s first-ever Healthcare Fraud Section and being selected as lead prosecutorial partner of the Department’s new Trade Fraud Task Force.
Even more than just dramatically improved year-over-year productivity, the cases we are charging represent serious and substantial federal interests. Just a casual perusing of our press announcements shows one headline grabbing case after another, including the Office’s first terrorism charges on mass transit, home invasion cases, cases against cartel leaders, death-penalty eligible cases, public corruption cases, massive frauds, among other significant federal crimes.
Emphasis added because criminal defense attorneys absolutely love headline-grabbing cases. They provide free publicity, which makes the lawyers even more money down the road. That highlighted line is what made me realize what was actually happening here.
This wasn’t a letter to the public. His response was aimed directly at former AUSA’s.
* Boutros then went on to bemoan the problems that many former AUSA’s so bitterly complained under their breath about during the reigns of his predecessors…
Our once storied and fabled Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office had fallen to last place in virtually every metric tracked by the Department of Justice and the federal courts. Last place (meaning 94 out of 94 districts) in 2024 in indictments per prosecutor; last place in charged defendants per prosecutor; last place in criminal cases per federal judge with the Office running at a 500% deficit to the national average (19 versus 101); and last place in case processing time from indictment to criminal judgment, with the Office operating at a 300% lag time to the national average (33.3 months versus 10.9 months).
Translation: After years of lean times, Boutros, a former prosecutor turned white collar criminal defense attorney, is good for the business they’ve all chosen. So shut up and go make some money.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 9:35 am:
“These wings are great,” Icarus said as he flew closer to the sun.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 9:36 am:
heh.
They mostly only make money from white collar prosecutions, though; he very specifically mentions fraud but I am curious whether prosecuting the people who can afford former AUSA defense lawyers has actually increased
Targeting wealthy people and businesses is off-brand, after all
- ChicagoVinny - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 9:37 am:
All these MAGA types assume everyone else is just as motivated by money as they are.
- ;) - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 10:00 am:
Headline: Corrupt Former AUSAs Whine Not Enough Corrupt Cases Being Brought. /s
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 10:15 am:
Boutros is one of those guys the minute they start talking I instinctively hide my money in my shoe.
- Juice - Tuesday, Jun 9, 26 @ 10:29 am:
Why is the US Attorney’s office handling home invasion cases?
I also suspect part of the slowdown in indictments is because the office also did not actually have a US Attorney for a number of years because JD Vance was blocking the confirmation of anyone appointed.
Hard for line prosecutors to know what to focus on when there is literally not a leader in the office.
Also, the health care fraud cases were all teed up and ready to go prior to Boutros coming into the office, those investigations had been going on for years. But, the indictments are now in question because his staff used some of the same improper tactics that they used in the Broadview 6 case on the indictments themselves. So there’s that.