Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel expressed their outrage over a “brokered deal” that resulted in the dismissal of 16 felony charges against actor Jussie Smollett on Tuesday.
Johnson and Mayor Rahm Meanuel both said they had no idea that all charges would be dropped against Smollett, who told police he was attacked by 2 Trump supporters on Jan. 29.
Mayor Emanuel called the Empire star’s nolle pros deal a “whitewash of justice.” A nolle pros is a legal phrase that means prosecutors are “unwilling to pursue” criminal charges.
“You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules apply to everybody else,” Emanuel said.
Johnson was more blunt. He said Smollett used his homosexual lifestyle to degrade the justice system.
“Do I think justice was served? No, I think this city is still owed an apology,” he said, referring to Smollet’s “brokered deal”.
“At the end of the day, it is Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax, period. If he wanted to clear his name, the way to do that is in a court of law so everyone can see the evidence.”
Smollett, 36, afreed to forfeit $10,000 of his $100,000 bond.
Mayor Emnauel said “$10,000 doesn’t even come close” to the city’s costs for investigating Smollett’s lies.
“This is a whitewash of justice. The grand jury could not have been more clear,” said Emanuel. “Even after this whitewash, still no sense of ownership of what he’s done.”
He added:
“This is a person now who has been let off scot-free, with no sense of accountability of the moral and ethical wrong of his actions. From top to bottom, not only besmirching the name of the city, but then I cannot stress that in a time when you have people bringing a moral equivalency in Virginia between bigots and those fighting bigotry. And you have a person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people who are minorities from violence. To then turn around and use those laws to advance your career and your financial reward. Is there no decency in this man?”
“Where is the culpability in the system?”
CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson responds to charges being dropped against Jussie Smollett: “They chose to hide behind secrecy and brokered a deal to circumvent the judicial system.” pic.twitter.com/7k9KK0J4AG
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 26, 2019
JUST IN: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: "Mr. Smollett is still saying that he is innocent, still running down the Chicago Police Department. How dare him?"
"Is there no decency in this man?" https://t.co/llZlJ934Wn pic.twitter.com/lWgNMUsyZW
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) March 26, 2019