Texts reveal clash between Lightfoot, Foxx
Leaders argued over wrongful convictions
While campaigning for reelection in January, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot criticized Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for “handing out certificates of innocence like they’re candy.”
That kicked off a remarkable behind-the-scenes clash between the powerful Chicago political leaders that shed new light on their attitudes toward the city’s dark history of police misconduct and raised more questions about Lightfoot’s failure to lead a transparent administration.
Text messages obtained by the Tribune show Foxx took offense at the comment, and fired off a message to the mayor asking for a call and telling her: “I’m assuming they misquoted you given we don’t give certificates, judges do. If in fact you said this, I remain disappointed that you continue to say things that aren’t true.”
“Kim, I apologize for my inartful words which were not accurately captured but nonetheless were too casual and flippant given the serious nature of the topic,” Lightfoot responded, according to text messages released by her office.
That was not the end of the exchange, however. Lightfoot’s office released only those messages between the mayor and state’s attorney in response to a Tribune Freedom of Information request. The Tribune asked Foxx’s office for her text messages with Lightfoot the same day and the state’s attorney’s office released a broader exchange.
“But as you know from our past conversations directly about these and other post conviction issues, we have been greatly distressed by the way in which your office handles these matters,” Lightfoot texted. She complained that her team had been “totally and pointedly rebuffed” while trying to address the matter with Foxx’s office.
“Obviously, there are legacy issues with the CPD that your office is dealing with in the post conviction process, but I have always thought, respecting each other’s independent and different jurisdictions, that there was a way for better communications,” Lightfoot said. “I am sure you are aware that once these cases are resolved in the county, they immediately go to federal court and file 9 and 10 figure lawsuits against us and we know about the cases for the first time when we see the plaintiff ’s press release.”
She continued: “Of course the judges make the ultimate decision but as you know and I know, that decision is most times heavily influenced by the recommendation of the state’s attorney. Happy to get my team in a room with your team to discuss again. It would be great to make progress.”
Foxx fired back: “Lori, you were wrong. Period. Your apology was sufficient. This is bulls—-. You need not write a dissertation for fear of FOIA. Just be honest. That’s all. Just be honest.”
Lightfoot then criticized Foxx for relying on plaintiffs’ lawyers and wrote, “When you cool off and want to have another official conversation about this topic that is very urgent for us, I will bring my team to your office and we can discuss.”
The exchange is a notable glimpse at the behind-thescenes argument between a City Hall worried about liability and prosecutors dealing with a contentious legacy of wrongful convictions in the county. But it’s also a potentially significant transparency violation by Lightfoot’s office, which declined to explain why they didn’t produce the entire exchange. A city spokeswoman emailed the Tribune “no comment” after two days of inquiries.
After this story published, Lightfoot’s office produced the text messages and said it committed a “production error.”
The “legacy” issues Lightfoot referred to in the text are a series of wrongful convictions tied to disgraced police officials including former Cmdr. Jon Burge, who led an electric shock torture ring, and detective Reynaldo Guevara, who allegedly elicited false confessions from dozens of suspects. Those cases and others involving officer misconduct cost taxpayers millions in settlements and deprived mostly Black and brown men of their freedom.
Cook County is known to some civil rights advocates as the wrongful conviction capital of the United States in large part due to the city’s history of misconduct.
Foxx and Lightfoot had a supportive relationship leading up to Foxx’s first run for state’s attorney in 2016 and through the early part of the mayor’s administration in 2019. But they have clashed repeatedly over criminal justice issues since then. Lightfoot and her hand-picked police superintendent, David Brown, blamed Foxx for the second round of civil unrest in August 2020, saying that looters knew there wouldn’t be consequences. Foxx called a rare news conference to rebut them.
“It does not serve us to have dishonest blame games when all of our hearts are breaking,” she said.
In fall 2021, Lightfoot ripped Foxx for not charging gunmen in a West Side shootout, accusing her of making the city less safe. Foxx criticized Lightfoot right back for misstating key facts about the incident and noting the Police Department’s chief of detectives also agreed there wasn’t yet enough evidence to bring a case.
As Lightfoot campaigned for a second term, she would sometimes criticize Foxx in front of white audiences and praise her to Black Chicagoans.
Lightfoot lost her reelection bid in the first round of voting in February. Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson won the race to succeed her.