US attorney for Northern Dis. of IL announces 'sweeping reforms to internal grand jury practices'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: ABC7 Chicago

I-Team
US attorney for Northern Dis. of IL announces 'sweeping reforms to internal grand jury practices'

Announcement comes as fallout continues from dismissed fed prosecution of 6 people protesting ICE actions last year

By ABC7 Chicago Digital Team
Updated 9 minutes ago

U.S. District Judge April Perry said last week the actions from prosecutors in the case could lead to sanctions for misconduct and ethical violations.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As fallout continues from a dismissed federal prosecution of six people protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions last year, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced "sweeping reforms to internal grand jury practices and disclosures" Wednesday.

Charges against the "Broadview Six" or six people, including progressive politicians, who were protesting outside of the Broadview ICE processing facility during "Operation Midway Blitz," were dismissed after it was revealed prosecutors in the case had redacted and removed pages from grand jury transcripts. They also failed to disclose interactions with grand jurors that defense attorneys say amounted to an intentional "coverup" of prosecutorial misconduct. ... It's also believed Andrew S. Boutros had personal contact with the grand jury.

On Wednesday, Boutros announced a remediation plan that includes the "most substantial and significant changes in decades." ... "U.S. Attorney Boutros and the Department of Justice have also taken swift action related to internal personnel matters," a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The changes took effect Tuesday.

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Read more: https://abc7chicago.com/amp/post/us-attorney-andrew-boutros-announces-sweeping-reforms-internal-grand-jury-practices-disclosures-northern-dis-il/19181722/

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Reposted by Popehat Has Gone Absolutely CRAZY!!!
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social

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Jon Seidel
‪@jonseidel.bsky.social‬

JUST IN: Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros says he is implementing "sweeping reforms to internal grand jury practices" in the wake of the "Broadview Six" revelations:

United States Attorney Andrew S. Boutros Announces Sweeping Reforms to Internal Grand Jury Practices and Disclosures; Remediation Plan Includes Most Substantial and Significant Changes in Decades

CHICAGO — Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, today announced a series of sweeping internal reforms to the Office’s grand jury practices and disclosures that took effect yesterday. The remediation plan, which represents the most substantial and significant internal changes to the Office’s grand jury procedures in decades, will streamline the Office’s grand jury processes and disclosures. The new process moving forward will be more transparent, effective, and impactful while greatly reducing the likelihood of mistakes and errors.
The important reforms, which took effect yesterday for all grand jury presentations in the Northern District of Illinois, establish clear and unequivocal expectations and rules for federal prosecutors related to grand jury disclosures and the timing of those disclosures. Among the many changes in the remediation plan are increased and expanded education about grand jury presentations, including extensive, deep-dive training from national experts outside the Office. U.S. Attorney Boutros and the Department of Justice have also taken swift action related to internal personnel matters.
“One of the benefits of being the first Chicago U.S. Attorney to have previously been Chair of White Collar in private practice is that I have represented and advised as my own personal clients some of the largest public and other companies and their audit committees, boards, C-suite executives, and others in highly sensitive and bet-the-company government and internal
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investigations,” said U.S. Attorney Boutros. “Everybody who has handled high-stakes corporate cases knows that in addition to the importance of thorough, honest, and objective investigations, there must also be remediation, reforms, and process improvements to allow organizations to accept responsibility and make sure that the same mistakes don’t happen again. What I have formulated and thereafter implemented on Tuesday of this week are among the most sweeping reforms to address root-cause issues in the Northern District of Illinois’s federal prosecutorial practices and procedures, especially as they relate to the grand jury and grand jury disclosures. They also make the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office among, if not the leading district in the country on grand jury disclosures. These remediations should also be deeply curative and put to rest once and for all the divergent practices that have existed across the Office for decades, including from one Assistant U.S. Attorney to another as well as from one generation to the next. That’s because these are clear, bright line rules that everyone must abide by, which should streamline and simplify the decision-making and disclosure process, as opposed to bedevil it. It also should all but eliminate points of contention between federal prosecutor and defense counsel as it relates to these grand jury issues.”
After learning of certain conduct by the government in the grand jury during a recent case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office immediately moved to dismiss the indictment in that case and proactively initiated an immediate review of other grand jury presentations that could have been impacted in a similar fashion. The inquiry has included both a root cause analysis into the Office’s practices and procedures generally, as well as an exam of any cases by the AUSAs who went into the grand jury in that case that could have been impacted by similar conduct. The Office’s review is far along but remains ongoing. In addition,…
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The reforms announced today, many of which are being implemented for the first time anywhere in the country, will transform and modernize the Office’s procedures, while continuing to adhere to the longstanding tradition that a prosecutor serves as “one of the most beneficent forces in our society,” as then-Attorney General (and later Supreme Court Justice) Robert H. Jackson shared in his seminal 1940 address, “The Federal Prosecutor.” Attorney General Jackson remarked that the prosecutor’s “powers have been granted to our law-enforcement agencies because it seems necessary that such a power to prosecute be lodged somewhere. This authority has been granted by people who really wanted the right thing done—wanted crime eliminated—but also wanted the best in our American traditions preserved.”
In announcing his reforms to the Office, U.S. Attorney Boutros thanked the Office’s Assistant U.S. Attorneys for all that they do for the people of the Northern District of Illinois: “Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for being on the front lines keeping our communities safe, making sure our victims are heard, protecting the public fisc, and working to hold accountable those defendants who commit serious crimes, all while doing so in the very best traditions of the Office and the Department. After all, the motto of the Department is ‘Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur,’ meaning, ‘Who prosecutes on behalf of Justice.’”
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This statement is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, that are enforceable at law by any party, in any criminal, civil, or administrative matter. This statement does not purport to offer legal advice nor is it intended to substitute for the advice of legal counsel. It does not in any way limit the enforcement intentions or litigating positions of the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, or any other U.S. Attorney’s Office or compon…
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12:08 PM · May 27, 2026
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[pecosbob]

1. So the US Attorney that allegedly made improper contact with the grand jury is making new guidelines?

DoJ is full of unqualified lawyers with mail-order diplomas from Oral Roberts and Liberty University who obviously have not been properly trained in legal methods or ethics. You can't fix that with an inter-office memo.

[Figarosmom]

2. So what were the changes

I'm guessing with this guy he made it legal to mess with the grand jury just like he did.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. MS NOW-The DOJ's deeply unimpressive bench of MAGA lawyers is failing the easy part

It used to be unthinkable for so many grand juries to reject Justice Department cases — and judges are taking notice.

The DOJ’s deeply unimpressive bench of MAGA lawyers is failing the easy part
It used to be unthinkable for so many grand juries to reject Justice Department cases — and judges are taking notice. www.ms.now/opinion/doj-...

— US News Now - World’s leading Liberal Voice (@democracyblue.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T11:46:49.278Z

https://www.ms.now/opinion/doj-grand-jury-charges-misconduct

We’re witnessing a downward spiral precipitated by the Trump administration prioritizing loyalty to the MAGA agenda over hiring and retaining qualified legal candidates. Many of the lawyers who are now serving under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche have little to no courtroom experience under their belts. As a result, even what is normally considered the easiest part of a criminal case has become a minefield of uncertainty and hotbed of misconduct.....

Days before the trial was to begin, as The New York Times reported, the judge called in the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, to call him to task:

The blunders shocked the judge, April M. Perry, who recounted from the bench on Thursday how prosecutors had spoken to grand jurors outside the grand jury room — a major breach of protocol — and had improperly coached them that the evidence they had presented was particularly strong.

The prosecutors also stacked the deck in their own favor by removing from the panel some grand jurors who had voted against them when considering an earlier version of the charges. Making matters even worse, they tried to hide these maneuvers by redacting the grand jury transcripts — that is, until Judge Perry ordered them to give her the full copies.

The situation was even worse in Wyoming, where a panel of three federal judges tossed nine indictments from U.S. Attorney Darin Smith, who had never held a prosecutorial role before his appointment last August. As their ruling noted, Smith told grand jurors before presenting any evidence that the people he was charging were all “‘bad guys,’ ‘murderers,’ ‘bad people’ and ‘not run of the mill criminals seen in state court” — but only one of the defendants was indicted for murder. During a break, Smith then handed out his business card and, according to his own court filing, “invited the grand jury panel members to reach out to him.”,....

In some ways, the struggle the DOJ is facing is unsurprising — and can still be plenty harmful. When autocracies purge experienced leaders and experts, the vacuum is mostly likely to be filled with mediocrity. New research from German political scientists Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel examined the motivations for government officials during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s and ’80s. Their work illustrates how many of the midlevel figures carrying out the regime’s orders weren’t extremists or victims but instead, as The New York Times’ Amanda Taub framed it, “middling workers trying to get ahead.”.....

It’s troubling that several judges have already told federal lawyers that they have lost the “presumption of regularity,” the assumption that the government is telling the truth in court. It is likewise concerning that grand juries can no longer accept that they are being told the truth when presented with evidence of a crime. While there’s some bit of hope — not to mention schadenfreude — that comes from seeing this Justice Department fall on its face, each failure on its part helps erode faith in the legal system. It will be a long, hard road to rebuilding the trust that the Trump administration has squandered with its reckless, baseless persecutions.