The office of Special Prosecutor Dan Webb released its full 60-page “summary report” Monday afternoon of its investigation into the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx over her improper handling of the Jussie Smollett case in 2019.
Smollett was convicted earlier this month on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct, relating to faking a hate racist and homophobic crime in 2019, blaming it on Trump supporters, and falsely reporting it to the Chicago Police Department.
Foxx, who was one of several left-wing prosecutors backed by billionaire Democrat donor George Soros in his effort to push “criminal justice reform” across the country, initially dropped criminal charges against Smollett, provoking public outrage.
There was suspicion of political interference, after Tina Tchen, a former aide to First Lady Michelle Obama, reached out to the prosecution on behalf of the Smollett family. Judge Michael Toomin ordered a special prosecutor to intervene, both to take up the Smollett case and to investigate Foxx and her subordinates at the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.
Last year, a 12-page summary of the summary was released, in which Webb revealed that while there were abuses of discretion and possible ethical breaches by Foxx and her office, especially in misleading the public about key facts like Smollett’s past criminal record, there had been no criminal violations and Tchen’s intervention had not been decisive.
The full 60-page summary provides the evidentiary basis for the shorter 12-page version. It includes details of interviews with Foxx and Tchen, as well as others involved, and refers to text messages and other bases for the report’s conclusions.
Some of the additional details include confirmation of earlier reports that Foxx’s office declined to notify Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson that it was dropping charges against Smollett. Johnson had been vocal in public about his disgust with Smollett’s evident attempt to fake a hate crime, wasting resources and diminishing real racism.
The full report also provides further detail about Foxx’s false statements that Smollett had no prior criminal record — when, as the 12-page report said, “a prior misdemeanor conviction out of California from September 22, 2007 for DUI, driving without a license, and giving false information to the police, for which he was placed on 24 months of probation.” The full 60-page report adds that false statements about Smollett’s record were “particularly troubling” because his prior conviction “related, in part, to making a false statement to police,” and was therefore similar to the present case in Chicago.
The newly-released report also delves into the question of Foxx’s false statements to the public that the evidence was too weak to convict Smollett — after she had said the opposite just days before, confusing everyone and raising suspicions.
The full report does not explain why Foxx dropped charges against Smollett, even though it found that she lied about when she stopped talking to Smollett’s family and continued to receive updates about the case after she had recused herself from it.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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