(03-29-2019 09:31 PM)usmbacker Wrote: Never let a fake hate crime go to waste
The evidence was all over the TV news: Confessions by his two accomplices. Surveillance video. A canceled check. Then, as if by the very bleach he said was used to attack him, suddenly all charges against Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime vanished in an unannounced Chicago court hearing Tuesday.
Mr. Smollett’s insistence on his innocent victimhood, however unctuous, must now be counted a legal masterstroke. Johnnie Cochran would be impressed. It left Chicago prosecutors only the option of near-unconditional surrender if they wanted to make the case go away before Tuesday’s runoff mayoral election—which they clearly did.
Whatever your exact theory of how the case was corrupted, Chicago’s famous Democratic political machine arguably did what was in its own interest. Kim Foxx, the Cook County state prosecutor, who “recused” herself but didn’t, obviously had much to lose if the case went to trial, given her early meddling on behalf of the Smollett family. Well-served also were the two candidates in Tuesday’s all-Democratic runoff for mayor, whom it behooved to have a no-win political controversy end on the watch of unpopular outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
And then there’s Jussie himself, scion of an apparently well-connected family. He can go back to resuscitating his career and proclaiming his victimhood. On Thursday, his lawyers doubled down, calling him the victim of a “smear campaign” by city officials, including Mr. Emanuel. If he was attacked by the two Nigerian brothers who the police say were his confederates, one lawyer theorized, then they must be have been wearing “whiteface.”
“From top to bottom, this is not on the level,” Mayor Emanuel told reporters, pointing to the 16 charges a grand jury had returned against Mr. Smollett for falsely claiming he was set upon by a pair of racist, homophobic Trump supporters.
In the past 48 hours, even basic questions related to the prosecutor’s conduct have gotten contradictory and confused answers. Here’s the story as we now have it: Early in the case, Ms. Foxx fielded an outreach from Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, on behalf of the Smollett family. The family had “concerns about the investigation” as it was being pursued by Chicago P.D.
Of course they did. Mr. Smollett’s story had huge plausibility issues from the start and everybody knew it.
The family wanted Ms. Foxx to pressure the Chicago police chief to drop his investigation and hand matters over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She dutifully button-holed the chief and now claims she did so on the presumption that Mr. Smollett was the victim. It never occurred to her that he might turn out to be the suspect. Uh huh.
When it became clear he would be charged, she recused herself, but under the rules of her office that meant the case should have been handed over to a court-appointed special prosecutor. Instead it was handed over to her nearest deputy. Her staff now explains that her recusal was “colloquial” rather in the “legal sense.”
When the O.J. verdict came down 24 years ago, many spoke of “jury nullification.” Chicago has offered up an example of prosecutor nullification. Though some are trying to muddy the issue, let’s understand that the choice before Ms. Foxx’s office was not whether to send a first-time offender to prison. It was whether his slap on the wrist should at least come with an acknowledgment of the wrong he did.
Americans are plenty cynical about elite self-dealing, though now some will surely prefer to believe Jussie’s lies than believe he is a liar. Others will argue, cogently, that faking a hate crime is itself a hate crime. Then again a preference for lying about such matters is becoming epidemic.
Mayor Emanuel on the radio Thursday, for some reason trying to discourage the feds from investigating the Chicago miscarriage, threw in a familiar slur about President Trump’s remarks after the Charlottesville riot. Never mind that Mr. Trump’s plain words have now found their way even into Wikipedia’s account. When he spoke of “fine people” on both sides of the argument about Confederate statues, he explicitly said, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.”
In an environment where even the media doesn’t always seem to care about truth, why shouldn’t Jussie Smollett, his family and his apparently broad support network hope his lie can prevail too? The first clue may come at Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards, where he’s up for his role in the Fox show, “Empire.”
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Rahm Emanuel Blames Trump For Smollett’s Actions: Created ‘Toxic’ Environment
