“I have about 10,000 issues. Jussie Smollett doesn’t make the list for me.”
Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot told CBS 2 in an interview Friday she plans to stay out of the legal battle currently being waged between the city and “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
“I have about 10,000 issues,” she said. “Jussie Smollett doesn’t make the list for me.”
The news comes just days after many outlets, particularly conservative publications like the National Review and the Daily Wire, celebrated the incoming mayor amidst promises she planned to investigate Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s decision to drop all charges against Smollett.
“The state’s attorney’s office here which made the decision unilaterally to drop the charges has to give a much more fulsome explanation,” Lightfoot told MSNBC in an interview last Wednesday. “We cannot create the perception that if you’re rich or famous or both that you got one set of justice and for everybody else, it’s something much harsher. That won’t do, and we need to make sure that we have a criminal justice system that has integrity. The state’s attorney’s office has to provide more information about the rationale for the decision to drop the charges.”
Lightfoot, who is set to replace outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel in May, is being lionized by liberals for being the first black female and first openly gay leader of Chicago.
Smollett, 36, black and gay former star of Fox’s “Empire” TV show, reported to the Chicago Police Department on Jan. 29 that he was assaulted by two masked men who called him racist and homophobic slurs and shouted “This is ‘MAGA’ country!”
Police later turned their attention to the possibility that Smollett had staged the attack, eventually charging him with 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct.
In a surprise decision, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office announced they were dropping all charges against the actor. The decision set off a firestorm in the city, with the Fraternal Order of Police calling on Foxx to resign while Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel demanded the actor pay the city back the $130,000 it cost to investigate his claim.
Via Pluralist
