The special investigator for the Jussie Smollett case, Dan Webb, has found that the office of State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not commit any criminal offenses in its handling of the case but that Foxx made several “misleading” statements and “abused the discretion” of her office.
Webb paints a picture of an office in disarray and incompetently managed. The fact that Foxx and her people avoided prosecution may have had more to do with Webb’s lack of confidence that any convictions would come from indictments, than the innocence of the principals involved.
Significantly, Webb did not accuse Foxx’s office of being influenced by Democratic Party power brokers like Tina Tchen, the onetime chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, and Smollett’s sister Jurnee, a prominent Democratic Party activist. However, Webb says that Foxx lied to the press about not continuing to communicate with Jurnee Smollett even after finding out about the case. Also, the two lead prosecutors in the case, acting State’s Attorney Joseph Magats and lead prosecutor Risa Lanier, had “significantly and meaningfully divergent explanations” for why the case against Smollett was dropped.
Chicago Sun-Times: Special Prosecutor Dan Webb laid out a series of “operational failures” — and several false statements by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx — as he announced on Monday the end of his investigation into the handling of hate crime claims by actor Jussie Smollett.
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.
But Webb also said he did not find evidence that the case was improperly influenced by third parties such as Tina Tchen, the onetime chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, nor did he find evidence that would support criminal charges. – READ MORE
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