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U.S. Attorney’s Office (NDIL) @NDILnews - Statement by U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros in response to comments made by some former Assistant U.S. Attorneys:
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. In every metric, we’ve vigorously brought the full weight of this Office and the federal government against dangerous criminals and serious fraudsters who previously got a pass. That’s because irrespective of factionalism, tribalism, or politics, the duty of a prosecutor is to charge good cases against worthy targets and to bring enough cases to discourage the public from committing crimes and to incapacitate specific offenders from re-offending.
In comparison, when I walked through the doors as U.S. Attorney on April 7, 2025, after ten years of co-chairing white collar in private practice, and after previously serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in this District for almost eight years, I found an Office that was not well. 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).
Having conducted an unprecedented root-cause analysis of nearly every facet of the Office, we’ve spent the last year righting the ship through significant changes and reforms to policies, procedures, and practices as well as dramatic hiring of senior experienced lawyers and prosecutors—hiring that remains robust and ongoing. We’ve unleashed energy and talent that once was suppressed, stifled, and stymied.
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