Special prosecutor to examine Smollett probe

A judge decided to appoint a special prosecutor Friday to investigate the decision by Cook County prosecutors to dismiss all charges against actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of lying to the police by claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in downtown Chicago in January.

In a ruling that leaves open the possibility that Smollett could be charged again, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin suggested that the county’s state’s attorney, Kim Foxx, mishandled the Smollett case by appointing a top aide to oversee it after she recused herself.

Foxx had been in contact with a relative of the actor and had been approached by former first lady Michelle Obama’s onetime chief of staff on behalf of Smollett’s family, and she explained at the time that she was recusing herself to avoid “even the perception of a conflict” of interest.

In his ruling, Toomin said he had no problem with Foxx’s February recusal, but that it should have included a request for a special prosecutor to take over the case. He said she had no right to hand it off to someone from her office, which he said amounted to naming her own special prosecutor.

“State’s attorneys are clearly not meant to have unbridled authority to appoint special prosecutors,” he said. “She appointed (her top assistant) to an office, to an entity, that has no legal existence. There isn’t an office of the ‘acting state’s attorney.’ It existed only … in the imagination of Ms. Foxx.”

— Associated Press