Chicago top prosecutor Kim Foxx defends her department's decision to drop Jussie Smollett charges
Chicago — A day after the Chicago police said they were blindsided by state prosecutors' decision to drop charges against actor Jussie Smollett. The department dropped a headline of its own -- releasing police reports outlining what they considered an ironclad case.
The 61 pages of detectives' reports shows investigators believed Smollett staged the attack at least three days before they publicly named him as a suspect.
They also reveal that least one FBI agent was involved in the case from early on -- and police got a search warrant for Smollett's iCloud account.
Still angered by the prosecutor's decision, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel on Wednesday questioned whether Smollett received preferential treatment.
"There is a sense here that you have one rule applying to an individual because he is an actor, somebody with certain amount of status that is being treated differently," Emmanuel said.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, who recused herself after communicating with a Smollett relative, defended her office's decision.
"If your own prosecutor told us that he believes Mr. Smollett is guilty, why not get that guilty plea from him as part of this deal?" CBS News' Adriana Diaz asked.
"Because according to the statue you don't have to. If he does and pays the restitution, if he does the community service, how he spins what he's done -- is that outcome consistent with others who are similarly situated," Foxx said.
She also responded to questions of a riff between the state attorney's office and Chicago police.
"I think the state's attorney's office and Chicago police and the mayor have a shared view. Their frustration on how this case was handled -- I hear it and I respect it and I say to them what I said to others. This case was treated no differently," Foxx said.
Another controversy is that the case files have been sealed. Foxx said that wasn't part of the agreement to drop charges. Lawyers for the media, including CBS News, have filed motions to keep the documents from being destroyed and to make them public.
