Chicago State’s Attorney Kim Foxx branded liar by former ethics officer she blamed for Smollett case

Chicago State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is being accused of lying by the former subordinate she said advised her not to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the controversial Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax case

Chicago State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is being accused of lying by the former staffer she said advised her not to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the controversial Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax case.

Foxx told reporters on Friday that she was just following ‘the advice and counsel of my then Chief Ethics Officer’ when she decided against ordering a special prosecutor to oversee the decision on whether or not to charge Smollett for staging an anti-black and homophobic hate crime against himself back on January 29 with the help of Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, the body-building brothers Smollett had trained and worked with previously.

But Foxx’s former Chief Ethics Officer, April Perry, said her old boss’ assertion is false.

She sent an email to reporters on Friday that she says not only contradict Foxx’s claims, it actually shows the opposite to be true.

Foxx told reporters she was following her former chief ethics officer April Perry's advice when she decided against ordering a special prosecutor to manage the criminal case against Smollett (pictured), but Perry, who resigned in April, said Foxx is lying

Foxx told reporters she was following her former chief ethics officer April Perry’s advice when she decided against ordering a special prosecutor to manage the criminal case against Smollett (pictured), but Perry, who resigned in April, said Foxx is lying

April Perry, a former staffer for Kim Foxx (left), said she advised her ex-boss' First Assistant Joseph Magats (right) to request an outside State's Attorney to take over the Smollett case, but said Foxx wanted her own office to handle it and declined to issue the request

April Perry, a former staffer for Kim Foxx (left), said she advised her ex-boss’ First Assistant Joseph Magats (right) to request an outside State’s Attorney to take over the Smollett case, but said Foxx wanted her own office to handle it and declined to issue the request

‘My advice was that First Assistant Joseph Magats seek the court’s approval and request a Special State’s Attorney appointment in this matter,’ Perry wrote in an email obtained by Page Six.

‘I prepared a motion and order to that effect, and e-mailed it to the First Assistant on February 20. Shortly after sending that email, the First Assistant advised me that State’s Attorney Foxx determined that the motion and order should not be filed,’ she added.

Court records obtained by Page Six show Foxx never issued a special prosecutor order, which would have barred not only her, but her entire office, including Magats, from working on the Smollett case.

Magats is the attorney who ultimately decided to drop all charges against Smollett. 

First Assistant Joseph Magats (right) dropped all 16 charges filed against Smollett on March 25

First Assistant Joseph Magats (right) dropped all 16 charges filed against Smollett on March 25 

Cook County Judge Michael Toomin on Friday ordered a special prosecutor to re-examine the Smollett case, saying Foxx's office had mishandled it by effectively naming her own special prosecutor

Cook County Judge Michael Toomin on Friday ordered a special prosecutor to re-examine the Smollett case, saying Foxx’s office had mishandled it by effectively naming her own special prosecutor

‘It is a Chief Ethics Officer’s job to provide the best advice and guidance possible based upon the facts given to her at the time. Sometimes that advice is followed, sometimes it is not,’ Perry said Friday. 

Cook County Judge Michael Toomin ordered a special prosecutor to re-examine the Smollett case on Friday, saying Foxx’s office had mishandled it by effectively naming her own special prosecutor.

‘State’s attorneys are clearly not meant to have unbridled authority to appoint special prosecutors,’ Toomin said, according to the Chicago Tribune. ‘[Foxx] appointed (her top assistant) to an office, to an entity, that has no legal existence. …There isn’t an office of the ‘acting state’s attorney.’ It existed only … in the imagination of Ms. Foxx.’

Toomin’s fellow Cook County judge, Marc Martin, piled on in criticizing Foxx’s management of the Smollett case Friday during court proceedings in a separate criminal case against 21-year-old Hoffman Estates village resident Candace Clark.

Candace Clark has been ordered to pay $2,800 in restitution for an alleged felony charge of filing a false report brought by Foxx's office even though Clark denies committing the crime

Candace Clark has been ordered to pay $2,800 in restitution for an alleged felony charge of filing a false report brought by Foxx’s office even though Clark denies committing the crime

Smollett initially avoided having to pay $130,000 in restitution, the estimated amount of money the city of Chicago spent investigating his alleged hate crime hoax, when the 16 charges against him were dropped on March 25.

Like Smollett, Clark has been charged with a felony count of filing a false report. Authorities say she let an acquaintance take money out of her bank account before telling police the money had been stolen, a charge she denies.

Unlike Smollett, Clark, who says she works a regular job, has been ordered to pay $2,800 in restitution.

Judge Martin took issue with the apparent contradiction.

‘I’d like to know why Ms. Clark is being treated differently than Jussie Smollett. It’s a disorderly conduct case, a lot less egregious than Mr. Smollett’s case,’ Martin said in court, according to records obtained by Fox 32. ‘Ms. Clark is not a movie star. She doesn’t have a high-priced lawyer. And this smells big time. Your office created this mess. There’s no publicity on this case. Press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in the newspaper.’

Clark also said she doesn’t think the way prosecutors are treating her is fair. 

‘I don’t have publicity,’ she told Fox 32. ‘I’m just a regular girl just trying to make it out here, doing a job, working 10-hour shifts, overnight… I’m not Jussie Smollett. I wish I was.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk