April Perry
Role at the time: U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, presiding over United States v. Rabbitt, in a written order
Statement summary
Perry writes that Boutros had to approve presenting the case to the grand jury again after it declined to indict, and that the idea he made that decision without reviewing the best available evidence of what went wrong is nearly unfathomable.
“The idea that USA Boutros would have made such a significant decision without reviewing the best evidence available to him about what went wrong in the grand jury is nearly unfathomable.”
Why we used this label
The reference point is Andrew Boutros's conduct in the Broadview Six prosecution and its aftermath, including his office's accounts of it to the court and DePodesta's allegation that Boutros blamed him for the case's collapse. Perry criticizes Boutros's account to the court as hard to credit and nearly unfathomable, and finds more than an adequate basis to inquire whether willful false statements were made, with testimony set before she makes findings.