Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Wednesday defended prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett just weeks after he was charged with coordinating a hoax hate-crime attack on himself.
“I think that there is a lot of confusion,” Foxx said at WBEZ, adding that there was a “slim” chance Smollett would have received jail time in the case. “There’s some people who were never going to be satisfied unless Mr. Smollett spent many nights in prison.”
At Tuesday’s hearing where prosecutors dropped the charges, the actor agreed to forfeit the $10,000 he posted as bond in the case to the city of Chicago.
WBEZ radio posted a transcript of Foxx’s latest remarks along with a broadcast story about the interview.
According to the transcript, Foxx compared the handling of Smollett’s case to numerous other low-level felony offenses dealt with by her office.
“There are people who work out these types of arrangements on the very first day. There are some people who are diverted not from us but at the police station. So there’s various ways that we can do this. And so I think because it’s so public, because everyone saw the last court date and sees the next court date, it feels accelerated.”
Foxx had recused herself from the Smollett case in mid-February, after an ethics review determined she might have a conflict because she had communicated with a relative of Smollett’s about the case during the time when Smollett had been considered a victim of a hate crime, and before the police investigation had turned into an probe of whether the actor had coordinated a hoax.
According to the interview, Foxx also told reporters that Smollett’s case file would be unsealed, but it is not clear what the state’s attorney may have meant. Tuesday, after prosecutors dropped the 16 counts of disorderly conduct against Smollett, Judge Steven Watkins granted a defense request for the “immediate sealing of the criminal records.”
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter was turned away from viewing the case file immediately after the hearing Tuesday. Scanned records of the case were removed from the digital database maintained by the clerks’ office by Tuesday afternoon.
By Wednesday morning, there was no record that the case had ever existed, and clerk’s office staff said the case file had been moved into storage.
MORE JUSSIE SMOLLETT COVERAGE
• Dropping charges against Jussie Smollett a ‘whitewash of justice,’ Rahm says
• Why the charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped — and why many are stunned
• A ‘Jussie’ restriction? Lawmaker would nix tax credits for Smollett shows, films
• MITCHELL: Cook County state’s attorney’s office fumbles in Smollett case
• TIMELINE: The Jussie Smollett investigation
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