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Chicago Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot Says Jussie Smollett Case ‘Doesn’t Rank As A Matter Of Any Importance To Me’

Although the charges were dropped, the Chicago Police have been attacking Jussie Smollett and Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx.

Yesterday (April 12), we learned that the Chicago Police Department is suing actor, Jussie Smollet for a half a million dollars for not paying $130,000 to cover the cost of a police investigation in which Jussie claimed that he was a victim of a hate crime attack.

The lawsuit accused Mr. Smollett, who plays Jamal Lyon on “Empire,” of orchestrating a fake assault in January and repeatedly lying to members of the Chicago Police Department as they investigated the case. City lawyers repeated many of the claims that had been made by prosecutors before criminal charges against the actor were dropped last month.

Many people including the Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and the city’s largest police union soon called for the elected prosecutor, Kim Foxx, the first Black woman in the role, to resign. Ms. Foxx, who had assigned the case to her deputy, said there were doubts about whether the evidence was strong enough for a conviction. In addition, if he was guilty, which has not been proven, it’s a class 4 felony, the least serious category, which covers charges like falsely pulling a fire alarm in school.

Foxx said in a statement Friday that she pledges her "full cooperation" and welcomes an investigation from Inspector General Patrick Blanchard into how the case was handled. General Blanchard confirmed his office will definitely be investigating the matter.

Foxx also says she is, "ensuring that I and my office have the community's trust and confidence is paramount to me."

ABC7 News asked Mayor-Elect, Lori Lightfoot, how her administration would handle the case and she graciously declined to answer.

"I'm not going to comment on any pending litigation. Obviously, this was a decision that was made by the current mayor, Rahm Emanuel," Lightfoot said. She did add, "We've got a lot of things on our plate, a lot of pressing issues that are truly affecting people's lives. This doesn't rank as a matter of any importance to me."
This is a shift considering Lightfoot was on MSNBC, within 24 hours of being elected, saying, “he’s got to be held accountable.”
Let’s hope Chicago can focus on actual crimes, like the famous corruption in their police department.

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