# All Charges Against Jussie Smollett Dropped. Er, updated tried and sentenced **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562 "2019-03-26T15:28:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/61 "2019-03-27T04:09:13Z")
Some important people have been meddling in this case. Foxx recused herself a few weeks ago. Definitely the right thing to do. It may be nothing. But it’s troubling to learn that the former first lady’s chief of staff was making phone calls on behalf of the family. The Smollett family has powerful friends. > **[Records: Former Michelle Obama aide, Smollett relative reached out to Kim Foxx](https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/3/13/18404894/records-former-michelle-obama-aide-smollett-relative-reached-out-to-kim-foxx)** > > Kim Foxx called CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson after she was contacted by former Michelle Obama staffer Tina Tchen, who knows the actor's relative. > [@](#): > > Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx tried to persuade Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to turn the investigation over to the FBI. > > Foxx’s call to Johnson came after an influential supporter of the “Empire” actor reached out to Foxx personally: Tina Tchen, a Chicago attorney and former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama, according to emails and text messages provided by Foxx to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request. > > Tchen passed Foxx’s number to a relative of the actor, and the ensuing conversations with the family member were cited by Foxx last month as the reason she recused herself from Smollett’s prosecution ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/62 "2019-03-27T04:39:09Z")
It’s a weird day when I’m agreeing with David Axelrod: > [@](#): > > [Unless some better explanation surfaces, here’s the lesson of this weird turn in the Smollett case: > You can contrive a hate crime, make it a national news, get caught and-if you are a well-connected celebrity-get off for $10K and have your record expunged and files sealed](https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1110618126662537217) > [@](#): > > [Hate crimes are loathsome. Faking them is insidious and shouldn’t be excused. Despite Smollett’s denials, nothing the prosecutor said in dismissing the case supports that. If prosecutors have evidence that contradicts the indictment THEY brought, they should share it today.](https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1110623671331098624) ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/63 "2019-03-27T04:41:00Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > My one consolation: you can’t fix stupid. Surely he’ll end up doing something like this again. If he actually gets his ass kicked now, he’ll be like the boy who cried “Wolf”. That would be ironic. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/64 "2019-03-27T11:17:33Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My jaw just dropped. And in other news, the murders of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman are still unsolved. My jaw dropped when I read this part of Smollett’s statement: “We look forward to bringing the real perpetrators to justice.” Really?? You’re taking a page out of the O.J. playbook?? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/65 "2019-03-27T12:13:34Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > It’s a weird day when I’m agreeing with David Axelrod: “Unless some better explanation surfaces, here’s the lesson of this weird turn in the Smollett case: You can contrive a hate crime, make it a national news, get caught and-if you are a well-connected celebrity-get off for $10K and have your record expunged and files sealed” It’s somehow news that well-connected celebrities get different treatment than others? Next you’ll be telling me rich people have different rules too! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/66 "2019-03-27T13:16:10Z")
I guess this is a case of Junk Juss-tice (stolen from this morning’s NY Post) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/67 "2019-03-27T14:31:05Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > It’s somehow news that well-connected celebrities get different treatment than others? > > Next you’ll be telling me rich people have different rules too! From last nights Colbert: “I have a dream that one day, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will hire the very best publicists to leverage their social media profile, escape charges and then make a big comeback on The Masked Singer.” This was from Dr. King’s _other_ speech. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/68 "2019-03-27T15:02:21Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > My best guess is that the DA’s office realized as they were preparing that they couldn’t actually make the case at trial, for some reason such as critical evidence would be inadmissible at trial (hard to believe Chicago cops would illegally cut corners when getting evidence against an uppity black man, isn’t it?), or the way Illinois statutes are written means that nothing he did was actually illegal (or at least there was a strong risk that a judge would decide one of these things). I’ll bet you’re right. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on “there’s a problem with the admissibility or consistency of the brothers’ testimonies and they realized there’s a good chance that it could either cause a public scandal around the CPD or a loss of the case if the thread got pulled.” The part of me that watches too many procedurals wants it to be that the brothers will admit on the stand that they only “confessed” after being threatened with deportation and were told that they could stay in the US as long as they said Jussie planned it. But life is less interesting, most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/69 "2019-03-27T15:14:15Z")
I’m most confused by how he managed to insure it got sealed? What’s in there that it can’t be made public? Surely the public has an interest in the outcome here, as it could mean prosecutors or police over reacted! In a case such as this, if he’s innocent especially why would he want it sealed? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/70 "2019-03-27T15:23:46Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Mention of Michelle Obama is just gratuitous Obama-bashing by Fox and is irrelevant. This is fairly standard for all “journalism” today. Everytime I read any movie news article about Tom Cruise or John Travolta it always makes an unrelated reference to Scientology, if I read anything about an upcoming movie with James Woods it refers to him as an “Outspoken Conservative”. The standard now is to put an aside remark in any article that involves anyone that has anything “controversial” about them. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/71 "2019-03-27T15:56:20Z")
Isn’t the problem in cases like this always going to be a matter of he said/they said? Two guys beat him up. Later they said he paid them to do it. He said he did no such thing. There are apparently checks that he gave them, but it also appears that these were for services that they did, in fact, provide him earlier. He initially said he didn’t know who it was that attacked him, but “I didn’t recognize them at the time they were beating me down in the middle of the night” is certainly plausible. I can certainly think he arranged it, but I don’t see any way based on what I’ve seen that it would pass any sort of reasonable doubt muster. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/72 "2019-03-27T16:22:29Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > I’ll bet you’re right. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on “there’s a problem with the admissibility or consistency of the brothers’ testimonies and they realized there’s a good chance that it could either cause a public scandal around the CPD or a loss of the case if the thread got pulled.” > > The part of me that watches too many procedurals wants it to be that the brothers will admit on the stand that they only “confessed” after being threatened with deportation and were told that they could stay in the US as long as they said Jussie planned it. But life is less interesting, most of the time. You would lose that bet. If that was the case there was no reason why the prosecutor wouldn’t have said that even if he did it in a roundabout way. Instead he gave some bullshit reason about how he thinks guilty guy shouldn’t be prosecuted because he’s non-violent. There is no reason why a prosecutor couldn’t say we are not going forward because we are not confident in the evidence. I’ve seen that many times. > [@Asuka](#): > > This is fairly standard for all “journalism” today. Everytime I read any movie news article about Tom Cruise or John Travolta it always makes an unrelated reference to Scientology, if I read anything about an upcoming movie with James Woods it refers to him as an “Outspoken Conservative”. The standard now is to put an aside remark in any article that involves anyone that has anything “controversial” about them. When the family has direct ties To a former president like working for the campaign, introducing him at rallies, pictures of the defendant yukking it up with the First Lady, it’s a little more than tangential. The chief of staff for the first lady attempted to use her influence on the head prosecutor about the case. Stories about the suspect being friends with the first lady are then very relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/73 "2019-03-27T16:25:02Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > Isn’t the problem in cases like this always going to be a matter of he said/they said? Two guys beat him up. Later they said he paid them to do it. He said he did no such thing. > > There are apparently checks that he gave them, but it also appears that these were for services that they did, in fact, provide him earlier. > > He initially said he didn’t know who it was that attacked him, but “I didn’t recognize them at the time they were beating me down in the middle of the night” is certainly plausible. > > I can certainly think he arranged it, but I don’t see any way based on what I’ve seen that it would pass any sort of reasonable doubt muster. Well now we only have his word for it since it’s sealed, but the police commissioner stated they didn’t even give the grand jury all of the evidence. He seems to think it was a lot more than that and pretty open and shut. Even the sacrificial lamb the prosecutor put out in front of the camera says that he is guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/74 "2019-03-27T16:30:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I thought probation and community service were reasonable. So now they think forfeiting his bond and non-existent community service is sufficient punishment. He’s obviously not innocent or he wouldn’t have forfeited the bond. Something stinks here. This case smelled bad right from the beginning and the odor is getting worse. I don’t think he’s innocent, but I don’t agree with your reasoning. A lot of innocent people would forfeit a $10,000 bond to avoid going to trial for felony charges. I would. The lawyers would cost far more than that even for a very short trial. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/75 "2019-03-27T16:46:54Z")
So can I pay $10,000 and get a “Get out of jail free” card? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/76 "2019-03-27T16:52:28Z")
The Chicago Police just released their files on the case. It doesn’t contain the grand jury testimony of course. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/77 "2019-03-27T16:53:35Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So can I pay $10,000 and get a “Get out of jail free” card? How many former Presidents do you know? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/78 "2019-03-27T17:03:08Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The Chicago Police just released their files on the case. It doesn’t contain the grand jury testimony of course. Link? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/79 "2019-03-27T17:08:39Z")
[Prosecutor on dropped Jussie Smollett charges: ‘I do not believe he is innocent’](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/prosecutor-on-dropped-jussie-smollett-charges-i-do-not-believe-he-is-innocent/ar-BBVgWQk#page=2) > [@](#): > > The Cook County state’s attorney who dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett said Tuesday that he does not believe the move vindicates or exonerates the Empire actor, who police say staged a racial and homophobic attack against himself in late January. > > “I do not believe he is innocent,” Joseph Magats said in an interview with CBS Chicago. > > Smollett, 36, was charged earlier this month with 16 felony counts for false report of offense. When asked why he dropped the charges, Magats said, “Based on all facts and circumstances of the case, and also keeping in mind resources and keeping in mind that the office’s number-one priority is to combat violent crime and the drivers of violence, I decided to offer this disposition in the case.” He also refuted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s claims that “this is a whitewash of justice.” That is some industrial-grade bullshit there. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562/80 "2019-03-27T17:12:19Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Link? The internet? Google? It’s on every major news site. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-charges-against-jussie-smollett-dropped-er-updated-tried-and-sentenced/831562.md?page=5)