Eric Zorn
Column: Kim Foxx must explain her handling of the Jussie Smollett case
By Eric Zorn
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, left, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot greet after holding a news conference at Chicago's Milton Lee Olive Park on Aug. 14, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
It's not even a surprise anymore.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx blew yet another chance to begin to put the Jussie Smollett controversy behind her Monday when she issued a defiant, tone-deaf response to special prosecutor Dan Webb's summary of his investigation into her office's handling of the case.
Webb's summary was damning and devastating, yes. It accused Foxx's office of "substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures" and of "making false and/or misleading statements to the public" in overseeing the strange, high-profile case of a Hollywood celebrity who allegedly faked a hate crime attack against himself here in early 2019.
But rather than issue a long overdue apology or explanation — "I made mistakes. I'm sorry." — Foxx responded defensively yet again, denying any misconduct and concluding her 237-word news release with the declaration that she will have "no further statements on this matter" until she receives Webb's "final written report."
The full report won't be released without a judge's OK. And Foxx's clipped response assures that the controversy will continue to dog her campaign for reelection in November, as voters like me, who supported her four years ago and are generally sympathetic to her approach to justice and her determination to undo wrongful convictions, keep wondering if Foxx is someone they can trust.
Foxx's news release began by noting that Webb's "report puts to rest any implications of outside influence or criminal activity on the part of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office" when it abruptly and without explanation dropped all charges against Smollett just 19 days after filing a 16-count felony disorderly conduct indictment against him in March 2019.
Such implications were always far-fetched. I shared this obvious truth in a column in February. There was no corrupt arrangement. No backroom deal. As I inferred and as Webb concluded, Foxx didn't collude with powerful people to try to give a break to a B-list celebrity, as some conspiracy-minded observers were insinuating. She wasn't trying to curry favor with his friends in national politics or with the Black or gay community — Smollett is both, and she is African American. That would have been an insane risk to her future given the international spotlight on the case and the meager potential reward.
Instead, what I believe Foxx was trying to do was to use that spotlight to illuminate a focus she is proud of on violent crime and her determination not to waste the resources of the criminal justice system on less serious offenses such as filing false police reports.
It was a spectacular miscalculation. Most members of the public weren't clamoring to have Smollett serve hard time at Stateville for his alleged attention-grabbing stunt, but they, like me, wanted to see a guilty plea, an expression of remorse and the imposition of a robust fine for all that he put the city and its police through. His protestations of actual innocence after Foxx unexpectedly abandoned the case were, in a word, galling. In two words, extremely galling.
Foxx owed the public a full and candid explanation of what went down and why. Who said what to whom and when?
Instead she began deflecting and dissembling and offering shifting and incredible excuses for not simply leveling with us about what changed her mind in the nearly three weeks between filing charges against Smollett and throwing them grandly out the courthouse window.
Webb, who has since re-indicted Smollett, wrote in his summary report Monday that the "decision-makers" in Foxx's office "did not learn of any new evidence" during that time, and in interviews they offered "significantly and meaningfully divergent explanations for how the resolution was reached." Accordingly, Webb was unable to reach a conclusion about what exactly happened.
Foxx knows. She has known all along. And her failure simply to tell us is far more damning than her attempt to let Jussie Smollett slide.
She needs our trust. If she's going to successfully overhaul the administration of justice in a way that makes residents of Cook County safer — her main job — we need to believe she's an honest broker, impartially following the evidence and the data, not spinning us or lying to burnish her reputation or advance some other agenda.
Enough delay. Foxx can't ask for and doesn't deserve your vote in November until she reestablishes that trust by sitting down and answering every question raised by this bizarre case.
Her consistent reluctance to do so is disqualifying. My suggestion to her borders on a demand:
C'mon. Surprise us.
ericzorn@gmail.com
Twitter @EricZorn
Editorial: Kim Foxx's manipulations in Jussie Smollett case. Why? We still don't know. »
Rex Huppke column: In Jussie Smollett case, special prosecutor finds Kim Foxx misled public. That's unacceptable. »
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