The Smollet mess.
 

If it plays out as appears, a bewildering self-sabotaging disappointment all around and a betrayal of real victims of bigotry.
FWIW, his story was problematical from the beginning as having a "staged" feel, it did not ring true to me.

Jussie Smollett paid $3,500 to stage his attack, hoping to promote his career, Chicago police allege

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/21/enter...day/index.html

The latest take from the LGBT viewpoint:
https://www.advocate.com/crime/2019/...-salary-issues

Bizarre story with too much coverage IMO in light of all the other news of the day (e.g., the white-nationalist arrested yesterday with a huge cache of weapons and a hit list of Democratic politicians and journalists on the very day that Trump wailed about "the enemy of the state").

Sounds like just another day in paradise Trumpistan, that is indeed the lead.

Roger Stone lightened the mood with his Joker schtick.

Watching him get slapped down hard in an authority check while whineing about his self-inflicted problems was schadenfreud of the best sort.

Hope he gets what coming to him!

This:
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/02/f...-stories-about

And this:
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/02/l...uard-terrorist

Trevor Noah's take:
Trevor Noah Amazingly Finds A Silver Lining In The Jussie Smollett Story
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trevo...b06cf6bb2529db

And Whell was just whining about the order of stories on WaPo, lol. Faux "News" is a joke. WaPo is real journalism. Whell is an idiot.

Unexpected development, details to follow:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ropped-n987446

So...statements from the police commissioner and the Cook County States attorney's office this afternoon. THE CPD and Mayor Emanuel are furious and insisting that all the evidence would have convicted Smollett at trial.

In the statement from the assistant state's attorney it was also stated that this plea deal does not exonerate Smollett from having committed the felony for which he was charged. In fact the state's attorney stated that he believes Smollett committed the crime as charged. Only that this is a similar deal given to any offender of a non-violent felony charge who has no prior record, one of over 5800 such deals made by him since he joined the department.

It's sort of bullshit however. It's not like Jessie lifted a $300 iPod Touch. He is accused of running a fraudulent hoax that cost the CPD in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate. And its exceedingly rare for the record of the accused in a plea deal to be sealed and expunged. Or to not take at least some responsibility. So Jussie got a way, way better than average deal when he agreed to relinquish his $10,000 cash bail.

The FBI investigation into the case continues. Particularly into a threatening letter sent to Smollett, which the state's attorneys office reported that Smollett sent to himself. This may not be over for Jussie.

Celebrity justice is still very much alive and well.

I really want to feel some good vibes for Jussie, but this hasn't added up from the first. Someone must have somehow poisoned the case for the prosecution for this result.

We have a Cook County States Attorney named Kim Foxx. A day or two after the incident Foxx had a phone conversation with a member of Smolett's family where the family member expressed concerns about how the case would be handled by the CPD. Shortly thereafter Foxx recused herself from the case. She assigned the prosecution to Assistant States Attorney Joseph Magats. In his statement today, Magats insisted that he made the decision on the plea deal without having to consult with Foxx. Nobody believes him. Foxx knew if her office proceeded with a prosecution and won a conviction, which everybody in town knew was going to happen, she would be dead meat with the black community in the next election. So she ordered the plea deal.

I have a friend who is now a federal prosecutor, but who worked as a states attorney for Foxx for almost two years. He says Foxx is the most lax prosecutor he has ever worked for.

Probably TMI already on this shit, but one last annoying thing...

What happened is not a plea bargain. What happened is called a pre-trial diversion. Smollett walks away from this with no criminal record.

Also the proceedings were sealed and the case is expunged so if he admitted his acts to get the deal nobody will ever know.

It's a great deal for Jessie Smollett who only paid $10,000 by forfeitting his bail, and a great deal for his lawyers who Jussie paid a fortune, and who got a ridiculous amount of free publicity...but it's not a particularly great deal for anybody else.

This is not going away in the politics of Chicago...

John Kass, Chicago Tribune: Kim Foxx plays the race card to save herself from her Jussie Smollett fiasco

From the article:


No Cook County State's Attnorney in the last 50 years has been less eager to prosecute street crime than Kim Foxx. The reason why the FOP (including police superintendent Eddie Johnson who grew up on these streets) and Kim Foxx are at each other's throats started way before Jussie Smollett showed up in town. It started when the number of street crime cases brought to the State's Attorney by CPD officers of all colors that went on to be prosecuted by the State's Attorney dropped like a rock thrown into the murky waters of the Chicago River.