US Attorney Andrew Boutros admonished by judge over handling of case involving Venezuelan gang

CHICAGO (WLS) -- One of the state's leading federal law enforcement officers, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, was commanded to attend a court hearing in-person Thursday expressly for a magistrate judge to admonish him for not complying with a judicial order.

It's the latest in a month's long string of events calling the credibility of the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois into question.

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At issue was a July 1 news conference in Washington D.C. where Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, along with Boutros, discussed the recent arrest of three alleged Tren De Aragua members.

"Let me just also describe the ruthless kidnapping and murder that occurred that is the basis of this criminal complaint," Boutros said. "A man kidnapped from a park in Chicago in broad daylight, beaten, held against his will, taken to an abandoned building and shot multiple times.

The issue was at the time of the news conference the criminal case was under judicial seal -- a seal that the U.S. Attorney's Office had requested -- meaning it could not be discussed publicly.

Also, one of the suspects was still at large, creating a potentially dangerous situation for federal agents preparing to arrest them.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally ordered this hearing to take place after one of the suspects made their first court appearance.

Speaking to Boutros on Thursday, Judge McNally told him from the bench, "In my view, this was a clear violation of the sealing order... It was not unsealed by the time of your press conference."

"I conclude that the sealing order was not honored by the DOJ," Judge McNally said. "I conclude, thank God, that no concrete harm came of this violation, in this instance."

Boutros called the situation "very regrettable and unfortunate," and said that he takes "orders from the court very seriously. Always have, always will."

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ABC7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer told the ABC7 I-Team a hearing like this, to verify that the U.S. Attorney would respect an order from the court, may not have occurred if not for a string of recent questions over the credibility of the federal prosecutor's office in Chicago.

"This is yet another unprecedented event. You simply don't see a judge dressing down the U.S. Attorney in person, insisting that he be there for that purpose," Soffer said. "This judge clearly felt the need to engage with this U.S. attorney in person in a way that I don't know has ever happened before."

The U.S. Attorney's Office is accused of prosecutorial misconduct in a case against protestors at the Broadview ICE facility, as well as similar allegations made in a multi-million dollar fraud case against former Loretto Hospital executives.

Both cases now dropped forcing Boutros to implement what he called a "remediation plan" reviewing more than a thousand cases dating back to 2007.

At the Washington news conference, when asked about those issues, Boutros said, "There can be assurances in confidence that the cases that are pending are not suffering from those issues."

Judge McNally was clear there will be no further consequences for Boutros in the case of the sealed order violation, but the potential for sanctions hearings in other cases is ongoing.

"To the extent there's any concern, there should be no concern that we need to be reminded of the court's order," Boutros told Judge McNally. "We respect the court."