Cook County DA Kim Foxx under fire following Jussie Smollett verdict
by Barnini Chakraborty, Senior Investigations Reporter | December 10, 2021 01:16 PM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/cook-county-da-kim-foxx-under-fire-following-jussie-smollett-verdict
A guilty verdict in Jussie Smollett's phony hate crime trial has renewed criticism of Cook County District Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office mysteriously dropped more than a dozen charges against the Empire actor before public outcry forced a special prosecutor to step in.
Smollett was found guilty on Thursday on five of six counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police.
I hope someone prosecutes Kim Foxx now for letting a Michelle Obama crony talk her out of prosecuting #JussieSmollet's obvious crimes. And I also hope Smollett gets an extra 6 months for perjury.
Smollett, who is black and gay, claimed two men approached him during the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019, in downtown Chicago. Smollett said the men in ski masks beat him up, put a noose around his neck, and shouted racist and anti-gay slurs at him before fleeing. The incident caused widespread outrage and put pressure on authorities to find the culprits. Following a massive citywide investigation, the narrative emerged that Smollett orchestrated the hate crime on himself in a publicity stunt.
Smollett was charged on Feb. 20, 2019, with disorderly conduct for filing a false police report about the alleged attack. On March 7, 2019, a Cook County grand jury returned a 16-count indictment against him.
Despite mounting evidence, Foxx, who is known for her far-left policies, and the state attorney's office decided to drop all charges in exchange for Smollett performing community service.
The decision outraged the authorities and prompted then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to call it a "whitewash of justice."
The Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago's police union, and others called for Foxx to step down from her post.
Dan Webb, the special prosecutor appointed to the case, accused Foxx and her office of repeatedly abusing their discretion and making false public statements in the case against Smollett. His 12-page outline criticized Foxx and her staff for how they decided on March 26, 2019, to toss charges against the actor and singer. Among the focuses of Webb’s inquiry was whether Foxx acted improperly by speaking to a Smollett relative and a onetime aide of former first lady Michelle Obama, Tina Tchen, before the charges were dropped. It also looked at how Foxx only recused herself after news broke about the communication.
While Webb's investigation did not lead to any criminal charges against Foxx or anyone else in her office, it did "develop evidence that establishes substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures" in the case.
Even though Foxx claimed she welcomed a special prosecutor, evidence showed she actually tried to fight an investigation into her office's handling of the controversial case.
Foxx's political opponents used the uproar over Smollett to further their attacks on her, which led to a protest outside her office that was purportedly attended by members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group.
Webb restored charges against Smollett a year later, arguing that the evidence against the 39-year-old was overwhelming, something he repeated multiple times during the trial.
As closing arguments began this week, Foxx was in Los Angeles being photographed with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon. The West Coast district attorney was supposed to give a 90-minute news conference highlighting his first year on the job but instead was forced to field tough questions about rising crime rates and a possible recall.
Hours after Thursday's guilty verdicts, Foxx's office issued a statement.
"The jury has spoken," it said. "While this case has garnered a lot of attention, we hope as a county we can move forward. At the Cook County's State's Attorney's Office we will continue to focus on the important work of this office, prioritizing and prosecuting violent crime."
A 2020 Chicago Tribune investigation into Foxx showed she dropped more felony cases involving charges of murder and other serious offenses at a higher rate than her predecessor. During Foxx's first three years as Cook County's top prosecutor, her office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants. Her predecessor, Anita Alvarez, had a rate of 19.4%.
In October, she became embroiled in a fight with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she declined to press charges related to a shootout that left one dead. When Lightfoot urged Foxx to reconsider and "look at the evidence," Foxx said: “I was quite honestly mortified by what happened yesterday, particularly because the mayor, as a former prosecutor, knows that what she did yesterday was inappropriate."