Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s spokeswoman suggests Jussie Smollett was treated like everyone else, but a simple internet search turns up numerous people facing sentencing, fines, and more for doing exactly what Smollett allegedly did.
NBC News quoted Foxx’s spokesperson Tandra Simonton, claiming that dropping charges against Smollett “is not a new or unusual practice.”
Simonton added:
We did not exonerate Mr. Smollett. The charges were dropped in return for Mr. Smollett’s agreement to do community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago. Without the completion of these terms, the charges would not have been dropped. This outcome was met under the same criteria that would occur for and is available to any defendant with similar circumstances.
But CWB Chicago located numerous examples in Cook County of individuals charged with filing a false report, and sentenced to probation, and, in some cases, given a year of court supervision. In many cases, the individuals retain a criminal record.
On March 26, 2019, Breitbart News reported on seven people who were charged for filing a false report in Illinois, and their charges were not dropped. Instead, they were sentenced to varying periods of probation and fined, and many were required to do different amounts of community service on top of everything else.
A number of the seven individuals were also ordered to seek counseling or mental health treatment in addition to being sentenced.
But Foxx’s spokeswoman said dropping the charges against Smollett “is not a new or unusual practice.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.