Nothing to see here. Business as usual.
When you investigate Democrats, then there are always substantial abuses, but nothing that can ever be prosecuted. The investigation of Kim Foxx’s misconduct in the Jussie Smollett case predictably ends the same way.
Webb said Foxx and her staff made false or misleading statements about her declared recusal from the case, about how the Smollett case compared to others in the court system, about the certainty of a conviction for Smollett, and about her contacts with Smollett’s sister, actor Jurnee Smollett.
In his announcement, Webb wrote that lawyers who currently or previously worked in the criminal division of the state’s attorney’s office were “surprised” or “shocked” in some way by how the initial charges against Smollett were handled. He also wrote that the decision-makers in that initial case “have significantly and meaningfully divergent explanations for how the resolution was reached, including who negotiated the terms.”
Foxx appointed an “acting state’s attorney” to handle the case rather than ask the judge to appoint a special prosecutor. Once Foxx and her staff realized the error, Webb wrote that they “made the decision to ignore this major legal defect seemingly because they did not want to admit that they had made such a major mistake of judgment.”
Webb also pointed to an op-ed from Foxx published by the Chicago Tribune on March 29, 2019, in which he said Foxx “falsely represented that the ‘office believed the likelihood of securing a conviction was not certain.’ ”
Finally, Webb said Foxx made an untrue statement when she told the media she had stopped communicating with Smollett’s sister, Jurnee Smollett, as soon as she learned Jussie Smollett had become a suspect in CPD’s investigation. He wrote that Foxx had learned by Feb. 8, 2019, that Jussie Smollett was a suspect, but she continued to communicate with Jurnee Smollett for five more days.
As part of his investigation, Webb said he looked into whether there was any improper outside influence on the original case against Smollett, including by Tchen, Jurnee Smollett or Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Webb said he did not find evidence they influenced the outcome of the original Smollett case.
So we’ve got Foxx repeatedly making false statements, communicating with the sister of the defendant, and lying about it, and communicating with various parties advocating for Smollett, but it’s all fine.
None of this would be fine if, say, it involved Republicans, but being caught red-handed isn’t enough. Meanwhile Jurnee, who’s currently out promoting Lovecraft Country, from the J.J. Abrams sausage factory, is talking up Jussie’s innocence while the entertainment press nods along.
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