{"id":119672,"date":"2019-03-27T13:18:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=119672"},"modified":"2019-03-27T13:18:51","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:18:51","slug":"cook-county-first-assistant-states-attorney-joe-magats-knows-hes-destroying-the-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=119672","title":{"rendered":"Cook County First Assistant State\u2019s Attorney Joe Magats Knows He&#8217;s Destroying the Rule of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Prosecutor Who Dropped Charges Still Believes Jussie Smollett Lied, Chicago Police Union Want the Feds Involved<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Tonja Ren\u00e9e Stidhum<br \/>\nThe Grapevine<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_119673\" style=\"width: 820px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-27-at-1.15.36-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119673\" class=\"size-full wp-image-119673\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-27-at-1.15.36-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"810\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-27-at-1.15.36-PM.png 810w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-27-at-1.15.36-PM-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-27-at-1.15.36-PM-768x435.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-119673\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actor Jussie Smollett after his court appearance at Leighton Courthouse on March 26, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.\u00a0 Photo: Nuccio DiNuzzo (Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In a plot twist most didn\u2019t see coming, all felony charges against Jussie Smollett were abruptly dropped on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>However, the very prosecutor who dropped the charges\u2014Cook County first assistant state\u2019s attorney Joe Magats\u2014wants to clear up one thing: this doesn\u2019t mean he believes Smollett actually told the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe he did what he was charged with doing,\u201d Magats told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped;-not-an-exoneration-prosecutor-says\/5218125\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNN affiliate, WLS<\/a>. \u201cThis was not an exoneration. To say he was exonerated by us or anyone else is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I think justice was served? No,\u201d said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson during a press conference with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday, per\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/jussie-smollett-chicago-police-superintendent-and-mayor-slam-decision-to-drop-charges-against-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Entertainment Tonight<\/a>. \u201cWhat do I think justice is? I think this city is still owed an apology.\u201d Johnson has been firmly critical of Smollett since his arrest in January, accusing the actor-singer of \u201c[taking] advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/03\/26\/us\/jussie-smollett-prosecutor-calls-for-investigation\/index.html?no-st=1553690926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNN<\/a>, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is calling for a federal investigation into Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx\u2019s involvement, claiming there are text messages between Foxx and an attorney about \u201cdiverting the case from Chicago police department to a federal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inset--story js_inset branded-item branded-item--theroot\"><\/aside>\n<p>In a series of texts and emails obtained by CNN, Foxx informed Smollett family friend Tina Tchen about Johnson requesting a federal investigation, after the Smollett family expressed \u201cconcerns about the investigation.\u201d Tchen is Michelle Obama\u2019s former chief of staff.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Foxx had a text message exchange with another unidentified Smollett family friend noting she \u201cspoke to the (police) superintendent earlier, he made the ask. Trying to figure out the logistics\u201d to which the unidentified friend responded with, \u201cOmg this would be a huge victory.\u201d Following acknowledgment of the texts, Foxx recused herself from the Smollett investigation in mid-February.<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago police union also wants the feds to further investigate the letter Smollett claims was sent to him prior to the alleged attack against him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doubling down on that. We want to make sure that the Justice Department takes a very hard look with that case and what went on today,\u201d union president Kevin Graham told reporters following news of the dropped charges.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/03\/27\/entertainment\/jussie-smollett-wednesday\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNN<\/a>\u00a0reported that Gloria Schmidt, the attorney for brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, noted they were \u201cfully prepared\u201d to testify in court, but has since confirmed she no longer represents them. Smollett was initially accused of paying the Osundairo brothers to attack him in connection with an alleged hoax.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/thegrapevine.theroot.com\/prosecutor-who-dropped-charges-still-believes-jussie-sm-1833602818\">https:\/\/thegrapevine.theroot.com\/prosecutor-who-dropped-charges-still-believes-jussie-sm-1833602818<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutor Who Dropped Charges Still Believes Jussie Smollett Lied, Chicago Police Union Want the Feds Involved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}