Jussie Smollett's Case: Special Prosecutor Claims 'Abuses Of Discretion'
Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx is accused of ‘abuses’ in the Jussie Smollett case, according to Special Prosecutor Dan Webb.
According to ABC, in a report released on Monday, Webb found evidence of "substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures" from Foxx's office "in prosecuting and resolving the initial Smollett case."
Foxx’s office dropped all charges related to staging a hate crime against the Empire actor in April of 2019.
The report also alleged actions by Foxx and other attorneys in her office "may rise to the level of a violation of legal ethics by State's Attorney Foxx and CCSAO lawyers relating to false and/or misleading public statements made about the prosecution or resolution of the initial Smollett case."
That said, Webb did say there was no evidence that would support criminal charges against Foxx or anyone in her office.
Foxx’s office released a statement that read in part, "This report puts to rest any implications of outside influence or criminal activity on the part of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office (CCSAO) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD). “
The statement also added, "The CCSAO categorically rejects the OSP's characterizations of its exercises of prosecutorial discretion and private or public statements as ‘abuses of discretion’ or false statements to the public. While the release does not say so, any implication that statements made by the CCSAO were deliberately inaccurate is untrue. As a result of the issues addressed in the press release, and of discussions of them beforehand, the CCSAO has already made a number of changes to its operations, including the hiring of a new CCSAO ethics officer and more separation of their function from the administration of the office, and strengthening the recusal plan with clear guidelines and explicit definitions of conflicts of interest.”
The statement concluded that the CCSAO will wait for the final report from Webb to address the other accusations.
Jussie Smollett was hospitalized briefly after an alleged racist and homophobic attack on January 29, 2019 near his Streeterville apartment in Chicago. Initially, authorities investigated the matter as a hate crime, but eventually their suspicions turned to Smollett, believing he staged the incident.
The former Empire star was charged with 16 felony counts, but eventually all charges were dropped by Foxx’s office.
However, in February 2020, special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement that Smollett was charged with "making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers related to his false claims that he was the victim of a hate crime, knowing that he was not the victim of a crime." As a result, the 38-year-old will face six counts of disorderly conduct.
Jussie Smollett continues to maintain his innocence.
