The ABC-I team in Chicago continues its great work investigating Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx after her office dropped 16 felony charges against actor Jussie Smollett.
Foxx recused herself from the case after she talked with Smollett’s family before the charges, but new texts show that she still communicated with her team, found the charges excessive, and called Smollett a “washed up actor.”
Foxx exchanged texts with her top assistant Joseph Magats about the case.
Smollett faced 16 felony counts after the Chicago Police Department determined he staged the racist and homophobic attack on himself on January 29.
Foxx’s office dropped the charges, but did not expect the backlash they received:
Texts between top-level prosecutors and its communications office show a scramble to coordinate their messaging and futilely try to tamp down the heated controversy.“Just wish I could have anticipated the magnitude of this response and planned a bit better!” Assistant State’s Attorney Risa Lanier, the lead prosecutor on the high-profile case, texted Magats hours after the charges were dropped.“There’s really no planning for this,” Magats responded. “It’s the right decision.”“I agree and absolutely stand by the decision made,” Lanier replied.
Apparently a publicist in Smollett’s camp alerted the media, which left Foxx’s office scrambling to notify people. They told the CPD minutes before Smollett held a press conference and left.
Foxx said Superintendent Eddie Johnson “seemed satisfied with the explanation,” but he and other cops along with Mayor Rahm Emanuel held their own press conference where they lashed out at Smollett.
The CPD released the police investigation reports to show that they did not make up the allegations and how they pieced together their case.
Emanuel demanded Smollett pay back the city $130,000 to cover the costs of the investigation. When the deadline passed, the city filed a civil suit against Smollett.
Foxx and her office faced immediate criticism, but “denied outright requests for its internal files, saying it did so because the judge presiding over the case had agreed to seal the public court file moments after prosecutors dropped all the charges.”
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