Bernie Sanders endorsed the top Chicago prosecutor responsible for dropping charges against actor Jussie Smollett.
The Vermont senator, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told Politico he endorses a number of liberal candidates running for state positions, including Kim Foxx, who is seeking reelection as state’s attorney for Cook County, Illinois.
Other endorsements were given to Kane County, Illinois, state’s attorney candidate Junaid Afeef; Travis County, Texas, district attorney candidate Jose Garza; and Harris County, Texas, district attorney candidate Audia Jones.
“I’m proud to endorse these progressive leaders for the important offices of state and district attorney,” Sanders said in a statement. “Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by ending mass incarceration, the failed war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty, and that’s exactly what they’ll do.”
Foxx has faced backlash regarding her handling of the alleged hate crime that victimized former Empire actor Smollett. The actor initially claimed Make America Great Again hat-wearing Trump supporters beat him up and put a noose around his neck in January 2019, but as the investigation went on, the police accused Smollett of orchestrating and faking the entire incident.
Chicago prosecutors charged the actor with 16 felonies related to the fake hate crime, but Foxx dropped the charges, calling them “excessive,” in a move that was met with criticism by police and the mayor. Foxx then recused herself from the case.
A special prosecutor, Dan Webb, was appointed to investigate, and earlier this week, he charged Smollett with six counts of disorderly conduct.
Webb said a grand jury found that Smollett “planned and participated in a staged hate crime attack, and thereafter made numerous false statements to Chicago Police Department officers on multiple occasions, reporting a heinous hate crime that he, in fact, knew had not occurred.”
Foxx “has been unable to provide the [special prosecutor] with documentary evidence that shows that, in dismissing the Smollett case on the terms presented in court on March 26, 2019, the [state attorney] relied on other dispositions of similar cases prior to the Smollett case that would justify this disposition,” the statement said. “This issue was important to the [special prosecutor] because on the day the Smollett case was resolved in court, March 26, 2019, the [state attorney] issued a written press release in which it told the public that the Smollett case was being resolved under the same criteria that would be available for any defendant with similar circumstances.”
Foxx and her office could still face charges from the special prosecutor’s investigation.
