Quote:Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police is officially requesting a federal investigation into whether the Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, tried to interfere into the department’s investigation of “Empire” star Jussie Smollett on behalf of a former Obama administration official.

CWB Chicago, which has covered the Smollett case from the beginning, reports that Chicago’s police union requested the investigation in a letter to John R. Lausch, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago on Monday.

Smollett is accused of staging a “hate crime” outside his Chicago apartment in the early morning hours of January 29, 2019. Smollett claimed to have been assaulted by two white men who beat him, tied a noose around his neck, and splashed him with bleach, before yelling “This is MAGA country” and running off. After an intense investigation involving at least a dozen Chicago Police Department officers, CPD announced that they believed Smollett orchestrated the attack with the help of two friends, brothers he’d met on the set of his hit television show.

Smollett was charged with “disorderly conduct,” but only after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx recused herself for reasons that went unspecified until last week.