Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx Angry at Timing of Jussie Smollett Indictment, Claims It's Political in the 'Era of Trump'

FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2015, file photo, Kim Foxx, a candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, speaks at a news conference in Chicago. On Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed Foxx in the March primary over Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who has been facing heavy criticism over her office's handling of alleged police misconduct cases. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

FILE – In this Dec. 2, 2015, file photo, Kim Foxx, a candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, speaks at a news conference in Chicago. On Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed Foxx in the March primary over Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who has been facing heavy criticism over her office’s handling of alleged police misconduct cases. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

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On Tuesday, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb issued a multi-count indictment against actor Jussie Smollett, laying out six “low-level felonies” in the filing of four police reports, alleging a fake hate crime against himself, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Smollett alleged last January that he had been the victim of a hate crime by two men wearing MAGA hats and shouting, “This is MAGA country.” The Chicago Police later said he made it all up in a scheme with two brothers he engaged to fake “attack” him.

Webb had been looking into two questions since the dismissal of the original charges against Smollett caused a national uproar: whether to bring new charges against Smollett and whether the dismissal involved any impropriety by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx or people in her office.

While he’s charged Smollett, he’s still looking into the second question.

Webb said his investigators said the state’s attorney’s office was unable to show “documentary evidence” that Smollett’s case was handled like similar low-level felony cases involving non-celebrity defendants, despite public statements from the office that the case was typical. Webb found that the case against Smollett was strong, and that the state’s attorney’s office provided no documentation that the evidence against Smollett had somehow eroded between his arrest and when the charges were dropped.

Webb’s letter states his team reached “no conclusions” regarding whether people other than Smollett or state’s attorney’s staffers were involved in wrongdoing, and that their investigation is ongoing. The special prosecutor’s findings on the handling of the case would be put into a report to the Cook County Board.

“The decision to further prosecute Mr. Smollett is not evidence in and of itself that any individuals within the state’s attorney’s office engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with the Smollett investigation,” the statement reads.

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But even though Webb has not specifically called it impropriety, his decision to recharge Smollett and call out the State’s Attorney’s Office for not really having the justification as they claimed, obviously upset Foxx, who is in the middle of a hot re-election campaign.

From Daily Wire:

“The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office charged Jussie Smollett with multiple counts, and today the Special Prosecutor did the same,” Foxx’s spokewsoman claimed in a statement.

“What’s questionable here is the James Comey-like timing of that charging decision, just 35 days before an election, which can only be interpreted as the further politicization of the justice system, something voters in the era of Donald Trump should consider offensive,” Foxx said, referencing Comey’s eleventh hour decision to resuscitate an investigation into Hillary Clinton and her mishandling of classified information.

Foxx has made her opposition to Trump a hallmark of her re-election campaign, airing commercials touting her success in “standing up” to the administration on the issue of immigration. [….]

A FOIA request last year revealed that Foxx had exchanged messages with a former aide to President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in regard to the case, Tina Tchen, as well as a family member of the Smollett family.

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Webb is still investigating, so there may be more to come and more for Foxx to be upset about.

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