Cook county judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor on Friday to investigate why charges were dropped in the Jussie Smollett case.
Smollett was indicted on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct on March 6 for falsifying reports that he was the victim of a hate crime. Those charges were abruptly dropped on March 26 and the case sealed with no new evidence that materially changed the facts presented in the case.
The Guardian reports: ‘Toomin suggested that the county's state's attorney, Kim Foxx, mishandled the Smollett case by appointing a top aide to oversee it after she recused herself. … In his ruling, Toomin said he had no problem with Foxx's recusal, but that she had no right to select someone from her office to handle the prosecution, saying what she did amounted to naming her own special prosecutor. … Foxx defended her handling of the case and said she would welcome an independent investigation.”
