Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has been subpoenaed after a lawyer filed a petition for a special prosecutor who will investigate her office’s controversial handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
The lawyer, retired appellate judge Sheila O’Brien, also subpoenaed Foxx’s leading assistant, Joseph Magats, and filed an additional document requesting Smollett appear for the hearing. O’Brien asked Foxx, Magats, and Smollett to produce original documents from the criminal investigation to ensure they weren’t modified or will be destroyed as court proceedings continue, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Accused of staging a hate crime attack on himself, Smollett was initially charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct but the charges were inexplicably dropped weeks later in late March.
Though Foxx had apparently taken herself off the case in February, her office recently told the Chicago Tribune she had unofficially recused herself, as a formal recusal would take the entire office off the case and require them to request the assignment of a special prosecutor.
In April, Foxx’s office faced additional backlash when the Tribune obtained messages from Foxx where she reportedly insinuated that Smollett was overcharged. In a March 8 message to Magats, she reportedly described Smottlett as a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.”
“Foxx’s conflict in this matter is beyond dispute,” O’Brien wrote in her recent petition, saying that Foxx’s work on the case was “plagued with irregularity.”
“Instead, Foxx misled the public into believing that Smollett’s case was handled like any other prosecution and without influence.”
[Featured image: Kim Foxx/AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File; Jussie Smollett/AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File]
