Crime & Law

111 Ex-Federal Prosecutors Blast US Attorney Andrew Boutros, Saying He ‘Tarnished’ His Office’s Reputation

More than 100 former federal prosecutors published an open letter Monday blasting Chicago’s U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, claiming he “tarnished the reputation” of the office in the wake of the botched “Broadview Six” case.

The letter, signed by 111 ex-prosecutors who worked in the Northern District of Illinois office, shares their “heartbreaking” concerns over a mass exodus of prosecutors, grand jury “irregularities,” and breaches of trust with judges as more and more cases have fallen apart since Boutros — a Trump administration appointee — took over last spring.

“These matters raise questions about whether there is a failure of leadership in the office we deeply respect and whether once-forbidden political considerations are infecting prosecutorial decisions,” the letter states. “The answer to both questions, in our view, is yes.”

A spokesperson for Boutros’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Despite the broad concerns raised by the former prosecutors, they stopped short of calling on Boutros to resign his position — as a growing number of Illinois politicians have done following the dismissal of the “Broadview Six” charges.

Boutros thus far has resisted those calls and last week issued a defiant statement, saying his administration has “fixed — and continue to fix — an Office I inherited in April 2025 that was doing less than even the bare minimum.”

The “Broadview Six” case — in which six people faced felony conspiracy charges after they allegedly surrounded and impeded an Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle in west suburban Broadview — fell apart last month after defense attorneys and a federal judge learned of widespread misconduct by prosecutors before the grand jury that indicted the case.

Transcripts from those proceedings last October showed assistant U.S. attorneys allegedly removed some grand jurors who voiced dissent over the government’s theory of the politically charged case and held improper “ex parte” communication with grand jury members outside the confines of the proceedings.

Boutros denied any knowledge of these allegations when he appeared before U.S. District Judge April Perry to apologize and formally dismiss the case days before a trial was set to begin.

Perry said she was “incredibly shocked” by the alleged conduct, the likes of which she’d never seen from prosecutors in her career, adding that her trust in government prosecutors to do “the best they can to do the right thing … has been broken.”

Defense attorneys had previously questioned whether the charges were politically driven by the Trump administration, and immediately accused Boutros’ office of engaging in a cover-up by withholding the unredacted transcripts for months.

Boutros later revealed in a rare “special report” that he himself appeared before the grand jury in the Broadview case on the day the jury indicted the defendants.

Boutros claimed he only provided “general comments” during his 3 minute, 39 second speech about the need for grand jurors to be fair and impartial following “prior grand jury disturbances and potential tension.”

The former prosecutors in their letter said such a report was “unprecedented in our collective experience” that spanned some seven decades, and raises “more questions than answers.”

“He took the extraordinary step of questioning the grand jurors about whether they were ‘struggling’ with immigration cases after they had previously rejected charges in the Broadview Six case,” the letter states. “The message he delivered effectively signaled that the head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office is unhappy with us and we did something wrong. That message is inappropriate.”

Two of the letters’ signees — Nancy DePodesta and Chris Parente — currently work as defense attorneys and represented defendants in the “Broadview Six” case.

In their letter, the former prosecutors said they wrote the letter due to their love for the Northern District of Illinois office and because they know “how far these developments fall outside long-established norms.”

Chicago’s U.S. Attorney’s Office had earned a reputation for “winning significant cases while playing by the rules,” they added, while expressing hope Boutros can “begin an effort to restore this reputation.”

“That, however, will require candor from U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros; the courage to stand above and apart from political fealty; and a willingness to address the failures that have occurred,” they wrote. “It will require action, not mere words.”

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