{"id":119686,"date":"2019-03-27T15:29:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=119686"},"modified":"2019-03-27T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T19:29:08","slug":"smollett-case-has-destroyed-faith-in-the-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=119686","title":{"rendered":"Smollett Case Has Destroyed Faith in the System"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Latest twist in Jussie Smollett case \u2018has to damage your faith\u2019 in judicial system: Ben Domenech<\/h2>\n<p><!--more-->By Joseph A. Wulfsohn | Fox News<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=6018341533001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><br \/>\n<strong>Chicago&#8217;s mayor blasts decision to drop Jussie Smollett charges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The shocking announcement that the 16 criminal charges previously made against \u201cEmpire\u201d actor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/jussie-smollett\">Jussie Smollett<\/a>\u00a0had been dropped may have reinforced many people&#8217;s negative assumptions about the criminal justice system in the U.S., the Federalist publisher Ben Domenech suggested Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Earlier in the day,\u00a0the Cook County (Ill.) State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s office declared that while Smollett wasn\u2019t exonerated for allegedly staging a hate crime, his case was dismissed and the evidence remained\u00a0sealed.\u00a0In remarks to reporters, Smollett maintained his innocence, telling the world he was \u201ctruthful\u201d since day one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">During Tuesday&#8217;s All-Star\u00a0panel segment on Fox News&#8217;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/shows\/special-report\">&#8220;Special Report with Bret Baier,&#8221;<\/a>Domenech &#8212; along with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/shows\/next-revolution-steve-hilton\">\u201cThe Next Revolution\u201d<\/a> host Steve Hilton and the Cook Report national editor Amy Walter &#8212; weighed in on the fallout of the dramatic plot twist in the Smollett case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a situation that has to damage your faith in the judicial system,&#8221; Domenech told the panel.\u00a0\u201cThe truth is that, in this context, I think in Chicago, in the Illinois context, this is kind of a battle between Kim Foxx, who had to recuse herself from her position on this investigation at the State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s office, and the Chicago Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this was clearly something that internal politics played a role here,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Keep in mind that 18 people were killed with guns in Chicago during the time this investigation was going on, using up resources that otherwise could have been [brought] to bear on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Domenech added that Smollett may not be \u201cout of the woods\u201d just yet, pointing to the federal investigation into the threatening letter he reportedly sent to himself.<\/p>\n<p>Walter insisted that no one \u201cshould be surprised\u201d that wealthy and well-connected people \u201cget away with things\u201d that poor and non-well-connected people do not.<\/p>\n<p>Hilton saw a connection between the Smollett case and Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s Russia investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegardless of the facts here, people are invested in a narrative,&#8221; Hilton said. &#8220;They want to\u00a0believe what they want to believe. There\u2019s a story they\u2019re telling and they want to stick to it regardless of the facts &#8212; and that has been fueled by some of these details that have leaked out over the period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust as with Trump and Russia, regardless of what you saw in the Mueller report, people still, all day long I think, are going on about the president colluded. And so I think it speaks to the way how people want to believe regardless of the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/latest-twist-in-jussie-smollett-case-has-to-damage-your-faith-in-judicial-system-ben-domenech\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/latest-twist-in-jussie-smollett-case-has-to-damage-your-faith-in-judicial-system-ben-domenech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest twist in Jussie Smollett case \u2018has to damage your faith\u2019 in judicial system: Ben Domenech<\/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-119686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119686","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=119686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}