City of Chicago demands Smollett repay cost of police investigation
The Chicago Law Department says Jussie Smollett cost the city $130,000 in overtime police work by filing a false report; Matt Finn reports.
CHICAGO -- As police and prosecutors play the blame game over this week's surprise decision to drop a 16-count indictment against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, the fallout is now dominating the city's upcoming mayoral election.
Candidates Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot have both been peppered with questions about the case and its handling. Both have faulted State's Attorney Kim Foxx for failing to provide details on why the charges were dropped.
“The state's attorney has to be really forthcoming about the reasons for the dismissal,” Preckwinkle said. “And I think, in this instance, the judge needs to unseal the record so that the public has an opportunity to see what really transpired. This is a case in which there are a lot of questions. And those questions are unanswered.”
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During a Fox 32 mayoral debate, Lightfoot said the public has the right to know "why these charges were dismissed, what the underlying basis was, particularly in light of the allegations that were made by the state’s attorney at the time the charges were first announced that looked like they had a very airtight case against Smollett for faking a hate crime."
Candidates Lori Lightfoot (left) and Toni Preckwinkle (right) have both been peppered with questions about the Smollett (center) case and its handling. Both have faulted State's Attorney Kim Foxx for failing to provide details on why the charges were dropped. (Getty/AP/Getty)
Ironically, Foxx ran on a platform of transparency when she campaigned to be Cook County's State's Attorney in 2016. She promised a sweeping "new path" of transparency and community involvement and said she was "ready to go meet the community where they are because they are angry and they are grieving, because not only is the violence high, but the trust in law enforcement right now is dangerously low."
Preckwinkle helped launch Foxx's political career - first as chief of staff and then into the role of Cook County's State's Attorney. Foxx won her election as states attorney with the strong backing of Preckwinkle who at the time was Cook County's Board President.
Both Preckwinkle and Foxx have gone on to say they have a common goal of correcting what they deem as unfair incarceration of young black males.
According to a new poll of registered voters on Monday, Lightfoot leads Preckwinkle by a margin of 53 percent to 17 percent, according to the WTTW/Crain's Temkin/Harris poll. Both candidates will square off against one another Friday night in a debate.
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Brian Gaines, a University of Illinois political science professor, told The Chicago Tribune that the Smollett case could pull votes from Preckwinkle.
“I assume that the candidates will do their best to stay away from opining on this, but for voters it could reinforce this feeling that ‘we need new people, different people in office — because justice isn’t done the right way.’ They may be thinking we need an outsider, and that may help Lightfoot,” Gaines said.
Chicago's current mayor, Rahm Emanuel, came out swinging this week first criticizing his city's prosecutors and then blaming President Trump for creating a "toxic" environment that would allow Smollett to allegedly fake a hate crime.
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Smollett was accused of faking an anti-black, anti-gay hate crime against himself in order to drum up publicity for his role on a Fox television show. Denying the claims of fraud, Smollett maintained that on Jan. 29, two men beat him, poured bleach on him and placed a rope around his neck before yelling, "This is MAGA country" (a blunt reference to Trump's campaign slogan "Make American Great Again").
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A week before the alleged attack, Smollett told authorities he received a threatening letter at work. Chicago police believe he made that up, too.
The city of Chicago on Thursday sent a letter to Smollett's attorneys demanding he pay $130,000 to cover the cost of investigating the case. The exiting mayor suggested that Smollett write the check to Chicago with "I'm accountable for the hoax" written on the memo line. Smollett's attorneys hit back and demanded an apology from Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson for "dragging an innocent man's character through the mud."
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