Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced on May 27 a series of internal reforms to the Office’s grand jury practices and disclosures. The remediation plan, described as the most substantial internal change in decades, aims to streamline processes and reduce errors in grand jury proceedings.
The reforms establish clear expectations and rules for federal prosecutors regarding disclosures and their timing during grand jury presentations. These changes include expanded education about grand jury procedures with training from national experts outside the Office. Boutros said that both he 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 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.”
Boutros said these reforms were prompted after learning about certain conduct by government attorneys during a recent case’s grand jury proceedings. The Office moved to dismiss that indictment immediately upon discovery and began reviewing other potentially impacted cases involving similar conduct by Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs). The review includes root cause analysis into general practices as well as examination of relevant cases; it remains ongoing but is far along.
In addition to implementing new procedures for future presentations, the Office has reached out proactively to defense attorneys involved in affected cases handled by those AUSAs, offering them access to “minutes” from past grand jury sessions—the confidential portion where prosecutors advise jurors on law without witnesses present.
Boutros referenced former Attorney General Robert H. Jackson’s 1940 address “The Federal Prosecutor,” emphasizing adherence both to tradition and modernization: “These are clear, bright line rules that everyone must abide by… It also should all but eliminate points of contention between federal prosecutor and defense counsel as it relates to these grand jury issues.” He thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys for their work serving justice according to departmental traditions.
