Gloria Schmidt was packing for a family vacation Tuesday morning when she saw news alerts start to roll in: All charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett had been dropped. Schmidt was the attorney representing the two brothers — Ola and Abel Osundairo — who were suspected to have been paid $3,500 to fake a racist and homophobic attack on Smollett at the end of January. The Osundairo brothers, after turning on Smollett while in police custody for nearly 48 hours, were the key witnesses who transformed the Chicago Police Department’s probe from a hate crime investigation into false police report charges against Smollett. After spending weeks prepping her clients to testify, Schmidt was as surprised as anyone to learn that the Cook County state’s attorney’s office decided to dump the case without any heads up to the two primary witnesses. “It’s either there was a hate crime against Mr. Smollett, or he devised this plan. It can’t be both,” Schmidt told the Sun-Times on Wednesday. “I know the police did their job, they finished the investigation, they did what they’re supposed to do. The grand jury did what they’re supposed to do. Whose job is it to finish this? It’s the state’s attorney’s.” Smollett had told police that he was walking back to his Streeterville home about 2 a.m. Jan. 29 when two men walked up to him yelling racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him and put a noose around his neck. Even after detectives looked through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from the area, there was no evidence the attack really happened. The Osundairo brothers later told police they were paid to stage the attack. Schmidt maintained that her clients were still ready and willing to testify against Smollett and said the pair had recently been assigned a victim’s advocate from the state’s attorney’s office. She said she had never seen a case dismissed altogether without some admission of guilt. “The part that is missing in this transaction is the part where he pleads guilty,” Schmidt said. “From traffic tickets all the way up to felonies, in my eight years of practicing, I have never once had the Cook County state’s attorney’s office just completely dismiss all charges. Never.” Schmidt said she could only speculate as to why prosecutors made the move to drop the case despite she and the brothers having “hard, physical evidence” against Smollett. “Jussie was considered a victim in the first instances of the investigation, and that was an appropriate thing to do,” Schmidt said. “Anyone who says they’ve suffered a hate crime should be believed first. After mountains of evidence, still looking at him as a victim, then the police said, ‘OK, this is not holding up. '” As for the brothers’ relationship with Smollett, Schmidt said the Osundairos haven’t been in contact with the actor since their arrest. Though they likely have a “mixture of emotions” about Smollett, Schmidt didn’t think they would hold a grudge. “At the end of the day, and how I know them, I don’t think that they wish any ill will on anyone,” she said.<doc-sep>Actor Jussie Smollett after his court appearance at Leighton Courthouse on March 26, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo : Nuccio DiNuzzo ( Getty Images ) In a plot twist most didn’t see coming, all felony charges against Jussie Smollett were abruptly dropped on Tuesday morning. Advertisement However, the very prosecutor who dropped the charges—Cook County first assistant state’s attorney Joe Magats—wants to clear up one thing: this doesn’t mean he believes Smollett actually told the truth. “We believe he did what he was charged with doing,” Magats told CNN affiliate, WLS. “This was not an exoneration. To say he was exonerated by us or anyone else is not true.” “Do I think justice was served? No,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson during a press conference with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday, per Entertainment Tonight. “What do I think justice is? I think this city is still owed an apology.” Johnson has been firmly critical of Smollett since his arrest in January, accusing the actor-singer of “[taking] advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.” Now, according to CNN, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is calling for a federal investigation into Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx’s involvement, claiming there are text messages between Foxx and an attorney about “diverting the case from Chicago police department to a federal investigation.” 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 “concerns about the investigation.” Tchen is Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff. Advertisement Later, Foxx had a text message exchange with another unidentified Smollett family friend noting she “spoke to the (police) superintendent earlier, he made the ask. Trying to figure out the logistics” to which the unidentified friend responded with, “Omg this would be a huge victory.” Following acknowledgment of the texts, Foxx recused herself from the Smollett investigation in mid-February. 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. Advertisement “We’re 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,” union president Kevin Graham told reporters following news of the dropped charges. Additionally, CNN reported that Gloria Schmidt, the attorney for brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, noted they were “fully prepared” 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.<doc-sep>Kimberly Foxx, the first African-American woman to serve as Cook County state's attorney in Chicago, found herself under fire Tuesday after her office stunned the country by suddenly dropping all charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. The state's attorney's office announced its decision to drop the charges just weeks after he was indicted on 16 felony counts of filing a false police report in connection with his claim of having been the victim of a hate crime in January. Foxx had recused herself from the racially charged case last month, before Smollett was charged, and handed it over to her deputy, with a representative of her office saying at the time the recusal "was made to address potential questions of impartiality based upon familiarity with potential witnesses in the case." It was later reported by The Chicago Sun-Times that Tina Tchen, a Chicago lawyer and former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, had put Foxx in touch with members of Jussie Smollet's family days after he told police he was the victim of a homophobic, racist attack. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx arrives to speak to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after R. Kelly's first court appearance on Feb. 23, 2019, in Chicago Matt Marton / AP file A Chicago police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, has now asked the Department of Justice to investigate Foxx’s role in the decision to not prosecute Smollett. “The FOP is outraged by the decision to drop charges against Smollett, but not surprised,” the union said in an emailed statement to NBC News. “Since Kimberly Foxx has taken office, she has transformed the prosecutor’s office to a political arm of the anti-police movement. We renew our call for a federal investigation of her role in this case and expect the media to conduct a thorough investigation.” There was no direct response from Foxx. Her spokeswoman, Tandra Simonton, insisted that the Smollett case was treated no differently from the more than 5,700 other “cases for alternative prosecution” that the office has handled in the past two years. “This is not a new or unusual practice,” Simonton said in a statement. According to the statement, it does not mean prosecutors had any problem with the Chicago Police Department’s investigation of Smollett, who told police on Jan. 29 that he had been beaten up by two masked men in the swanky Streeterville neighborhood while he was out getting food. The actor, who is gay and black, claimed his attackers hurled racist and homophobic slurs before punching him, putting a noose around his neck, and dousing him with what he said was bleach. “We did not exonerate Mr. Smollett,” Simonton said. “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.” Simonton’s statement came after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel denounced the Smollett decision as a “whitewash of justice” and Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said his department was blindsided by the move. “That’s completely false, this is not a whitewash of justice,” Joe Magats, the first assistant state’s attorney, told WMAQ radio. The deal Smollett got “is available to all defendants; it's not something out of privilege; it's not something out of clout,” Magats said. Suspicions that Smollett might be getting a special deal were raised earlier this month when Chicago news outlets reported that Foxx had tried to persuade Johnson to turn the case over to the FBI. Foxx made the call to Johnson after Tchen put her in touch with members of Smollett’s family, who said “they have concerns about the investigation.” NBC News reached out to Tchen for comment but did not immediately hear back. This was before police began to suspect that Smollett had made the whole episode up. “They had no doubt about the quality of the investigation, but believed that the FBI would have a tighter lid on the information,” Foxx told The Sun-Times, insisting that Johnson seemed receptive to the idea of turning the case over to the FBI. Foxx, 46, who was born in Chicago and raised in the notorious now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing projects, is a married mother of two daughters. She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Illinois University. Before her election as Chicago’s top prosecutor, Foxx was an an assistant state’s attorney for 12 years. She then served as chief of staff for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is now battling fellow Democrat Lori Lightfoot for the chance to become Chicago’s first African-American female mayor. On her official web page, Foxx said that since taking office in December 2016 she has, among other things, “revamped the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, resulting in overturned convictions in over 60 cases, including the first-ever mass exoneration in Cook County for 15 men whose convictions stemmed from misconduct by a Chicago Police Officer.”<doc-sep>
The Cook County State Attorney’s office is under fire by several top officials in Chicago, after news broke of the decision by prosecutors to drop criminal charges against Jussie Smollett. At a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said the decision by the state attorney’s office was a “whitewash of justice.” He continued, “A grand jury could not have been clearer.” Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson also criticized the decision, saying, “Do I think justice was served? No. I stand behind the detectives’ investigation.” Here’s what you need to know about who works at the Cook County State Attorney’s office, and who was involved in the decision to drop charges against Smollett. Kim Foxx Is the State Attorney for Cook County Kim Foxx is Cook County’s State Attorney, and therefore the highest level of authority in the office. Her role in the Smollett case has been controversial, as she tried to convince Chicago police to turn over the Smollett case to the FBI, according to Chicago newspapers. After news broke of that move, Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February. Per The Chicago Sun-Times, Foxx did this after Michelle Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen, reached out to Foxx in support of Smollett. Joseph Magats Is the First Assistant to the State’s Attorney Joseph Magats is the First Assistant to the State’s Attorney, and the prosecutor who decided to drop all of the criminal charges against Smollett, after Foxx recused herself from the case. To The Chicago Sun-Times, Magats said that the decision did not mean that Smollett unequivocally is free of the suspicion that he did what prosecutors have alleged that he might have done, nor did it mean that he is a victim of a crime. He clarified to the publication, “We stand behind the CPD investigation done in this case, we stand behind the approval of charges in this case. They did a fantastic job. The fact there was an alternative disposition in this case is not and should not be viewed as some kind of admission there was something wrong with the case, or something wrong with the investigation that the Chicago Police did.” Magats was appointed as the new chief of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau in 2017, according to a press release from the Cook County State Attorney’s office. Within the press release, Foxx said, “Joe’s been in the office for 25 years. … I will be his fifth state’s attorney. And through it all, Joe has maintained a level of credibility and work ethic and expertise that his colleagues, and those who come up under him, can be inspired by his work ethic.” Tandra Simonton Is the Chief Communications Officer for the Cook County Office Statement from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/jJOuyQn1YJ — Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) March 26, 2019 Tandra Simonton is the Chief Communications Officer for the Cook County State Attorney’s Office. Simonton was the one who issued the press release confirming that Magats was dropping the criminal case against Smolletts: